Horizons
by Valoja
Summary: While investigating mysterious cases of people going missing and mangled bodies showing up days later, Lee unintentionally gets sucked into the world of demons and devils. Can she protect herself in this new, dangerous side of the universe, or is she going to need a certain Devil Hunter to save the damsel in distress in her? Dante x OC. Songs by Feint.
1. Lonesong

Snow was floating about, dusting everything with its innocent whiteness. Winter had barely even arrived and the tiny snowflakes were already eager to make an appearance.

Capturing a cigarette between her lips, Lee held her hand over an invisible lighter as if to stop the wind from blowing the flame out as she seemingly lit the stick. Pretending to inhale the smoke, she looked down to watch the snow land on the pile of flesh lying on the ground, slowly becoming red as it did.

She let out a sigh as though she were blowing the smoke out again and squatted down next to the body, her eyes scanning what was left of what used to be a beautiful woman. Remaining patches of blonde hair, mascara mixed with blood and what looked like a semi-devoured hand clutching a pink phone might have been enough to send any normal person running for a trash can, but not Lee.

Her partner and one of the few people willing to put up with her quirks, however, stood a few steps back. He was pinching his nose and looked away while trying his best not to gag.

"James, what do you think?" Lee asked him without looking away from the corpse. Chunks of meat were missing, as if an animal had eaten from it, but there were no animals in the city that had teeth nearly as big as this woman's torso.

"I think that you're an insane person for taking such an interest in a case like this," the young boy replied with a nasal voice.

"But you already know that, don't you?" she retorted as she pushed the remains of the jacket aside with a gloved hand, finding it gripping how there was more clothing than body left. As if something had knocked her out before eating her, careful to take in as little cloth as possible. Like picking olives from a pizza because they tasted horrible.

Lee watched as a group of police agents appeared at the scene, one of them joining James to ask him some questions while the other came to take photos of the corpse. He didn't talk to her so she took the liberty of running the case through her mind, trying to get a clearer picture of what was going on.

This was already the fourth victim within a time span of thirty-four days. There was no obvious connection between them, except for the fact that they were all the kind of people who liked to hang out when it was dark outside, and the pattern of their deaths.

First they'd go missing for a few days; that was why the police were being much more careful with reports of people disappearing. The first thing they'd ask was whether or not the person in question had been out during the night, if no, then they'd pass it along to someone lower on the food chain, if yes then they'd add it to the possible victims of this killer.

It never took more than five days until the bodies would be found again, looking as if someone had eaten them. So far, Lee didn't have any clues as to who or what was doing it, but she almost found herself wondering whether this was the work of something, or someone, inhuman.

The officer who had joined her with the body to take pictures threw a glance at her that told her that he deemed her ability to remain longer than should be possible with this stinking and rotting corpse rather unsettling. She was used to the curious gazes of bystanders and didn't care for them, though. She merely waited for them to leave her be so she could do her damn job and that was exactly what she did in this moment, making it as obvious as possible that she was waiting impatiently for the cop to leave her alone with the cadaver.

When he finally did return to his partner and James, who were watching Lee doing her thing once again now that the only living thing inside her personal space bubble was she herself, she continued her investigation.

The pockets of the jacket were empty. What caught her attention most was that this woman didn't have a purse or wallet on her, no ways of identification, no money. She would remain unnamed, a Jane Doe, until they managed to give her back her proper name, of which chances were pretty slim if she hadn't been signed up as missing before the showing up of her body.

For Lee, however, the missing wallet in its whole was more interesting than the fact that she didn't know Jane's real name. Nobody went out anymore without a credit card or cash, and an ID. Seeing as how all Jane's pockets were empty, that meant that the murderer had taken them; but why, if it seemed to be some monstrous animal that had found her to be a delicious meal? It was a sign of robbery, or just of the ability to think about one's acts, which was something that an animal couldn't do.

Or maybe it had just swallowed it by accident when eating at the rest of Jane's body.

No - it had avoided the clothes at all costs. To gain access to the wallet, it would have had to dig through them without destroying them.

Or she had used a handbag in which she kept her belongings, which she had dropped when she had gotten attacked.

But then why the phone in her hand?

Probably talking to a friend.

But after prying it from her limp grip and scrolling through its data, Lee found that she hadn't called anyone since two weeks ago - which would have been too long for the suspected killer's modus operandi. The last text, too, dated from around the same time. Then what had she been doing on her phone?

She had_ wanted _to call someone. Who, then? And why exactly at the time of attack? Coincidence, or had she felt it coming?

Lee continued rummaging through Jane's clothes, patting around for any pockets she might have missed. Before calling it a disappointing day, she lifted Jane's shirt as well, and then checked her bra. Indeed, as she had almost expected, there was piece of paper crumbled inside, squashed against Jane's still, palish blue breast.

It seemed as though she had shoved it in there hastily and when Lee unfolded it, she wasn't even surprised by what was written on it. It used to be some sort of business card, with a company name, the company's address and phone number printed on it. This one seemed rather sloppily-made, though, and she mentally shook her head at the cheapness of it.

Mentally because she was already too absorbed in reenacting the crime inside her mind. An alley, just like the one she was sitting in, appeared before her, though it was darker. Night, of course.

Jane happened to be walking through it, either returning home or on her way to a wild night, when she heard a noise from somewhere behind her. She turned around, but she couldn't see anything out of the ordinary. Still, with those kidnappings and murders she had heard about in the news at the back of her head, she pulled her phone out of her pants or her handbag, as well as the business card. She started typing the number into her cell, but it was already too late - she got pounced by the attacker. Somehow she still managed to hide the card into her bra, almost as though she hadn't wanted the murderer to find it. Well, he hadn't, and thanks to that nifty little trick Lee finally had a lead to follow.

Still - why had Jane wanted to call _Devil May Cry_ and what did this company have to do with the case?

It was time to pay someone a visit.


	2. Against the Grain

Standing in front of this building, Lee frowned at the business card that she was holding in her palm. The address was right, but then why did it look like a bar instead of the office of a company? Well, the card had looked rather cheap, too. It wouldn't surprise her if this all happened to be a ruse for the killer to hide behind if need be. Not that she was going to make any conclusions without evidence.

James stood next to her, rocking back and forth on his feet, obviously nervous.

"Did you really have to come all the way out here to question this person?" he asked for the umpteenth time that day as he looked over his shoulder just in case someone might be lurking about, ready to empty his pockets or even kill him without him ever noticing.

"Yes," was the only response Lee gave him. She always preferred a face-to-face interrogation, people finding it much easier to lie their way out of things when she couldn't see their stupid heads. How she hated simple-minded people, petty enough to sink to the level of crime instead of earning their lives the legal way.

Without waiting to listen to his whining again, Lee checked the business card one last time before crossing the street, first looking left and then right even though she hadn't heard any cars coming, to get to the building. After avoiding the cracks on the pavement, she climbed up the short stair case.

_One._

_Two._

_Three.  
_

She turned and re-counted the amount of steps, making sure she had gotten the correct amount, before walking over to the front door. All the while, James, who had already arrived at the front door, waited patiently for her. He knew that if he interrupted her doing "her thing", as he liked to call it, she would have to start all over again.

"Come in!" was called from the other side of the door before Lee had even managed to raise her hand and knock. She shared a glance with James, who merely shrugged and gestured for her to do "her thing" again.

After patting all the pockets she had on her - two front pockets, two back pockets, two coat pockets - she opened the door and stepped inside, immediately beginning to eye her surroundings as she did so.

It looked absolutely horrible. Dirty, furnished by an amateur, empty yet disorganised, and sombre... Lee couldn't believe a business like this managed to not go bankrupt immediately. At least that explained the cheap-looking card. Pizza boxes were scattered everywhere, the desk standing at the back hurt her eyes with its littered top, the carpet wasn't put down properly with edges tucked beneath itself and - worst of all - the... paintings or whatever they were hanging on the wall - slanting.

_Slanting_.

And, possibly even worse, the tiles were designed just so that a foot didn't fit into one of the decoration circles.

How could anybody live, or just work, in a place like this?

"Ya done examining the goods?" the apparent owner of this horror house whom Lee hadn't noticed yet asked her, tilting his head to the side as he, in turn, examined her, his eyes filled with amusement as he did so. He sat at his desk, his feet resting on top of it with his arms behind his head.

The _dirty_ desk.

Her fingers started itching at the sight of all this chaos and James couldn't help but let out a groan. The place they had to visit just had to look like this, didn't it? The two of them were never going to get out of here anytime soon.

Shaking her head and trying to concentrate on the case again, Lee took a few large strides towards this white-haired man and his desk - his _obnoxious_ desk - while fingering the business card, which she then slammed down on the stained surface when she arrived there.

The owner of this abomination of a building picked it up gingerly, almost sad at the way she had treated it, and looked it over. "Yes, what's with it? You want a new one? This one looks awfully... used. Unfortunately for you, missy, I ran out just this morning so you'd-"

He stopped talking when Lee practically shoved a photograph into his face. His eyes wandered over the surface in confusion, wondering what he was supposed to do with this, when suddenly his face scrunched up as realisation dawned upon him. "What the hell is _that_?"

"That, mister, would be a victim of a killer we are desperately trying to capture. And she, _unfortunately_ _for you_, had your business card on her body when we found her. Care to explain this?" Lee replied in a heartbeat as her hands busied themselves with the magazines and such that were scattered across _the_ desk.

The white-haired man pulled his feet down and put them back on the ground, all the while staring at her in disbelief. Yet at the same time she managed to find a hint of humour in his eyes. Did he think this was a joke? "Whoa whoa whoa there, babe! Are you saying you're suspecting me of having done this?!"

"Please don't refer to me as 'babe'. And all I'm saying is that we're desperate and this has already been the fourth murder and we need something, _anything_, that can help us move forward," she responded and with a feeling of relief she finished structuring the magazines and books into neat stacks on the desk.

"May I first ask on exactly which body part she had my card?" he asked as he leaned forward again, this time on his elbows with his head in his hands.

Lee shot him a dangerous glare, to which he reacted by holding his hands in the air. "May a man not ask such a question around here?"

"It's none of your business where we found it, just answer the damn question," she growled, her irritation growing with every additional second she spent in this man's presence.

"No answer is also an answer, isn't it?" he retorted with a wide grin. "And I don't remember even being asked a question in the first place. I say you answer my question and I'll reply to your... _claim_."

Lee heaved a sigh, running a hand through her hair. She already deeply regretted not taking up James's offer of just calling him. Though she doubted that would have helped her, to be honest.

"She had hidden it in her bra. Now tell me, do or do you not admit to being the perpetrator?" She frowned as the man who was obviously a pervert punched the air as some kind of celebration.

"Wait. You keep referring to this case as a murder, but this picture at least seems to be show a victim of some kind of animal," the suspect retorted rather suddenly.

Lee's hands fell still and she hesitated for a moment before answering. She couldn't pull back now, claiming it to be a hunch, but she wasn't quite sure that she should tell this to a suspect. Still, when she thought about it, what could actually happen if she were to explain it to him? If he were to kill her now, her boss and colleagues would know what happened, and she'd like to see him try, too. She had to force her hand to not rest on top of her holstered gun at the thought of that. Somehow, his blue eyes landed on her hand, anyway, and his lips formed another one of those annoying grins.

A glance towards James, who had been silent this whole time, told Lee that he thought the same, and so she began to lay out her theory.

"It all seems too calm and collected to be done by some beast. Sure, I got put on the case when it was still considered to be a 'raccoon problem', but the only thing that actually points to animals is the fact that the corpses are half-eaten. But clothes are almost always fully intact, wallets disappear and the bodies show up again days later. Why not eat the clothes as well? Why not stash the victim for later meals? But then again, the bite marks are obviously not human, so I don't know what to think, to tell you the truth."

"Yes, you do," he pushed, the grin turning into a small, friendly smile as his eyes locked with hers. For a moment there, he seemed much wiser than her, though she actually doubted that to be possible.

Lee hesitated once more, but this time because of James. He already believed she was crazy enough, but she feared that this might turn out to be the last drop.

"It's not human... but it's not animal either. Maybe, there's something else..." she mumbled. This had sounded much better in her mind. Now that she had said it out loud, she really did seem like a madman.

A dark cloud passed the stranger's face, which confused her. Hadn't he been the one pushing her for an answer? What else had he expected, then?

His words made her stop thinking for a moment. "Please get off this case."

Lee scowled at him, thinking he was joking around with her and almost spat out, "Fuck you."

But his face was serious and there were no more fun and games visible in his expression. His eyes flickered over to James, who took a step back as the tension between the two of them began to build up, before he pressed his hands on top of his desk. He leaned forward, and with his nose almost touching hers, she tried her best not to back down.

"I get it. This case is important for you, for your reputation or your ability to sleep at night-" Lee interrupted his whispering with a chuckle before letting him continue; her solving a case wasn't going to magically cure her insomnia or anything, "-or whatever, but there are things about the world that you don't know. Aren't supposed to know, too. So when I tell you to get off this case, I'm not doing it as this so-called culprit of yours, but as a friendly stranger to another, to protect you, _missy_. This won't end well for you if you decide to continue meddling with things that aren't supposed to be part of your life."

Lee stared into the icy blue eyes of this _friendly stranger_, her resolution wavering for a split second. Suddenly, she wasn't so sure about what she was supposed to do. But she wasn't about to give up just because some weirdo told her to do so. Not that she was going to tell said weirdo that, for he probably wouldn't let her go if she did.

Straightening her back, Lee called out to James without looking away from this man, whose name she still didn't know. "James, we're leaving. Go get the car ready, please."

"Thank you for your advice..." she then started, a professional smile making its way to her face as she held her hand out for him.

"Dante. And what might your lovely name be?" he asked her, his hand grasping hers in a firm handshake. He threw in a wink for good measure, the tension from before having disappeared completely in such a small amount of time, but she ignored it.

"Alethea Sheridan," she responded.

And then she added, "Thank you for the advice, Dante. I will consider it," despite the fact that she wasn't even planning on thinking his words over.

As though Dante expected this, he handed her the crumpled business card back. "Here. I have a feeling you'll be needing this more than I do."


	3. Your Own Way

A week later found Lee sitting at your desk, face in her hands, trying her best to control your breathing. A panic attack was the last thing she needed right now. She shouldn't let her guilt control her mind, her mind had to control the guilt and use it to fuel her motivation instead.

A week had passed by, yet the only thing Lee had gained was another body. A John this time.

_"The next one can very well be one of your relatives,"_ she scolded herself, handily forgetting that she didn't even have any relatives left. The few people who she did know and managed to put up with her, she called to check up on every few hours. The fact that their behavioural patterns didn't match with those of the victims didn't matter at all.

The only time she could forget all the worry and guilt was when she allowed herself to take another look at what she had found until now.

Staring down at the pictures of bodies and other evidence lined along the edge of her desk, she went over her theory and the facts that pointed towards its confirmation once more. The newest victim had provided her with some interesting new food for thought.

The killer couldn't be an animal; the clothes were enough proof for that, and then there was the illogical pattern of bodies disappearing and reappearing. But the fact that those bodies were half-eaten meant it couldn't possibly be done by a human being. A human and an animal working together, perhaps? But what animal could take such huge bites out of a fully grown body?

And then there was the zipper. Lee had found it in John's pocket, and after a bit of searching, she had found out that it had belonged to some model of a man's wallet. It had managed to get stuck on a thread in John's pocket that had held onto the zipper for dear life, resulting in the zipper actually being torn off its wallet by sheer force.

_That_ was something an animal wouldn't think of doing and what a human just couldn't do. You had even tried to replicate the result with the exact same wallet and trousers a few times already, to no avail.

This finding had sealed the deal for Lee. No matter how crazy it might sound, there _had_ to be something else.

_"Please get off this case."_

Why had Dante almost begged her to do so? And then his speech about wanting to protect her. Had he known about this? Did that mean there actually was something else, and he knew what it was?

Shaking these thoughts out of her head, she didn't want to make any conclusions without facts. She wouldn't forgive unprofessional behaviour from anyone, not herself or anybody else.

James popped his head into Lee's office, almost having felt her breakthrough from his own room. "Boss, you found anything new?"

With a disappointed sigh, she fell back into her chair, rubbing her face as she did so.

"Boss, you alright? You look just as horrible as the victims. When was the last time you had a good rest?" James went on, carrying a steaming mug of coffee towards her desk.

But she was no longer listening to his rambling.

_"You look just as horrible as the victims."_

_That's it!_

"That's it!" Lee repeated out loud.

"What's what?" James asked, confusion written all over his face.

"I'll lure the killer out myself," she announced as she got up from your chair, suddenly full of energy again.

If her announcing that the murderer was neither animal nor human but something entirely different hadn't changed his opinion of her sanity, this surely would. At least, that's what his staring at her seemed to tell her.

Then, after what seemed like ten minutes of awkward silence, he burst out in laughter. "You're... going to... lure him... out?"

Lee's pride having been hurt a little, she crossed her arms over her chest and raised a brow at his mirth. It took his brain even longer than before to process that she, in fact, was not joking, as he had expected. When he did realise it, he asked, "Wait, you're actually serious?"

Without showing any of the irritation at his naivety that she felt on her face, she nodded her head. Then, when he didn't reply, she stated out loud, "Yes, I am."

James merely shook his head in response, rubbing a hand across his forehead. He had learned long ago that when Lee had come up with a plan, it took hard, scientific evidence to get stop her from acting on it. And in this case, where James doubted there would even be scientific evidence to prove that the killer was "neither human, nor animal" that a normal human being could understand, he knew that there was no way to get this idea out of her head.

"But it's dangerous," he tried meekly, anyway, to which she shrugged.

"If it gets me closer to cracking this case then I will do whatever it takes! What is more important, my own life or that of the countless victims that have yet to be served as dinner?" she retorted, knowing he wouldn't ever be able to give that answer a morally just answer.

If he were to say the truth, then he would be forsaking other people and putting their lives on the line. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, after all. But if he were to agree with her, then he would be lying, and that wasn't something she would accept either. He ended up saying nothing, just as she had expected, and she went on writing down what she was going to do and why, for official record's purposes. Her boss wouldn't be very happy with her if he found out she went off without notifying anyone.

Checking her watch, Lee noticed it was slowly nearing the night and so she was going to have to leave now if she wanted to be ready in time. She doubted the killer would suddenly change his... appetite and attack someone dressed like _this_. She was going to have to wear something more appropriate for the occasion, unfortunately.

"Alright, I'll be going now," she announced as shse got up. She slung her coat, that she always hung neatly over the back of her chair, over her shoulders and folded the paper she had just written perfectly in the middle.

"What, now already? Don't you want to wait a few days until you can... refine your plan a bit? You always say not to make hasty conclusions, and I'm guessing this counts as-"

Lee silenced James with but a glance, telling him how serious she was. "James, I don't think 'making hasty conclusion' counts when there are innocent lives on the line, and with every additional day I wait with doing something, _anything,_ someone risks being turned into a meal. So please don't try to stop me. I'm not asking you to come with me, I'm only asking you to... well, prepare for the worst case scenario."

"You mean, worst case scenario as in... you dying?" James threw back at her, standing in front of the door with his hands on his hips. She had never seen such an amount anger and fear written on his face before.

She shrugged at the question, trying to lighten the mood up a bit, for his sake. "Well, actually, I meant worst case scenario as in me ending up in hospital. You know I won't die and leave you to live the rest of your life peacefully, don't you?"

It seemed to work and the corners of his lips started tugging upwards. Despite his fighting it back, the smile couldn't be hidden after it started appearing.

"Okay, fine!" he yelled, throwing his hands in the air. "But if you even think about dying on me, then I will bring you back to life only to kill you again."

"Doesn't that seem rather counterproductive? You'd want me to stay alive, wouldn't you, so if you actually had the ability to bring-"

"Please just leave before I change my mind."

"Okay, okay, I'm gone already!"

And with a quick pat of her pockets, Lee left the room, leaving James on his own to stare at his feet. Despite his many utterances of her having the capability of being an annoying, weird, mean, crazy bitch-slash-control freak most of the time, he still had become quite attached to her in these past few years. He would never admit it to anybody out there, but if it weren't for her, he probably never would have gotten out of his shell, would probably still be the self-conscious man who felt worthless about everything he did. He didn't want to lose her before being able to say so to her face, but she was completely oblivious of this fact as she made her way out of the building.

On her way outside, she left her report at the front desk, the man behind it accepting it nervously. Nobody around here liked being in her presence for fear of being scrutinised by her.

"There is really no reason for you to start trembling whenever I walk into the room," Lee stated as she quickly pulled her hand back, not wanting to touch the officer while handing him her note.

He almost looked relieved, a sigh escaping his lips when she said, "And by the way, you did your tie completely wrong. But it doesn't really matter because the horrible matching of your tie and your shirt completely hides it, so don't worry about it. Maybe you should buy a longer pair of pants next time you go shopping, too."

"Y-yes, sir, eh, ma'am..."

"Good. Now good night to you," was all she said as she turned and set her course out of the building.

"Oh, and you... You've got mail, ma'am," the shaken officer yelled after her.

"Just give it to James!" And with a wave of her hand, Lee dismissed herself from the office, now obviously a woman on a very important mission.


	4. Atlas

Walking down these snowy streets at night, the clicking and crunching of the high heels Lee was wearing against the sometimes snowed-in, sometimes concrete pavement - she didn't even bother avoiding the cracks right now - made her more self-conscious than she had ever been. The short skirt and thin tank top that kept crawling up her skin didn't particularly help her case, next to freezing her to death. Still, the sudden nervousness of her plan actually working cast a shadow over her worrying about her appearance.

She kept telling herself that it would never go as planned. She had never had a lot of luck in life, so why should that change in this moment?

Perhaps because she could also consider herself _unlucky_ if the 'mission' were to succeed. In the end, she stopped trying to reason with herself and just walked on.

By now, she had reached the rather empty downtown of the city and she wondered whether it was so because of the attacks, or whether it had always been like this.

In her hand she held her phone in a death grip, the sweat from her palms making it hard to keep her firm hold on it. Though she wasn't sure who exactly she would call in a moment such as an attack by something "neither animal, nor human", the fact that she was connected to the world comforted her greatly.

Glancing at the screen, Lee saw that it was past midnight and she began to hope that this whole thing was going to end up being a failure.

Her first, but one she could happily acknowledge if it meant she was still alive to do just that.

But maybe if she hadn't turned that corner into the dark alley to her right, she might have lived to tell the story - no, let's not get ahead of ourselves; she still had much to accomplish.

Anyway, Lee turned into a suspiciously dark alley, hoping she could at least claim to have searched thoroughly through the streets. Seeing next to nothing, she had to hold a hand against the brick wall next to her for guidance, not caring about chafing her finger tips.

Nope - her bad luck was definitely playing its role right now.

She could almost _feel _its lecherous stare before her eyes had adjusted themselves enough to actually _see_ the beast responsible for all the terror it was causing.

It was long - so, so long, she would never properly be able to properly describe it to someone who couldn't possibly imagine something like this. It looked almost like a feral beast, maybe a lion or a tiger, except with dark, metallic scales instead of fur covering its body. It still had claws though; large, deadly-looking claws that could slice her in half with a snap of its finger. It also had a tail that looked dangerous in its own right, its surface covered in thorns that were dripping with she didn't want to know what.

Its head was the most unnerving part of its body, however. It had a large mouth, as she had expected, but the top of its face, or head, or whatever it was, was covered with a black cloth.

As if that weren't enough, it actually started to chuckle before breaking out in a fit of actual laughter.

"Well, well, well, look what we have here..." it said, its mouth moving in ways she hadn't deemed possible for something that looked like a lion-tiger-thing. Its voice was one of the weirdest thing she had ever heard, too: deep, raspy, yet completely distorted and inhuman.

It took a step forward towards her from where it stood, which was at the other side of the alley. Lee looked over her shoulder and saw that she wasn't that far away from the exit, though deep down she doubted she would ever make it in time. One pounce from this _thing _and she was dead, like a deer trying to escape its hunter but failing miserably.

Still, she couldn't stop herself from taking a step back, not turning her back towards the monster just yet. She couldn't do anything more, anyway; her body having gone into complete lock-down as her brain tried to wrap itself around the concept of something that actually _was_ "neither animal, nor human". She herself hadn't even believed the existence of something like that, but she just hadn't had anything else to go by. Seeing that she had actually been right caused conflicting emotions within her: she was glad that she had figured it out, however she had no fucking idea what she was supposed to do now.

It sniffed a few times before it let out another laugh. "Hmm... You're not like the others, are you? Not intoxicated, like the others were. More intelligent, too. But then why would someone like you make her way towards a place like this?"

She was still incapable of replying. It took another step towards her, so she took another step back. Unfortunately, however, the heel of her right shoe got caught between a hidden stone on the ground and she stumbled backwards into the snow, somehow managing to not squeak in surprise. Her hand immediately shot down to hold her skirt down, though this was the worst possible moment to care about up-skirts. It was a monster, for god's sake, she doubted it even had a sexual need.

"Who... who are you?" Lee stammered as she tried to scoot farther away from this thing, her hands already going numb as she tried to push herself away. All she accomplished was damaging her calves and hands, without really making the distance between the two any bigger.

It let out a bark - highly confusing since it resembled a cat-like creature - of laughter before making a small jump in her direction. "I doubt that knowing who or what I am will do your case any good. However, because I am such a gentleman, I shall answer your question regardlessly. I am Atlas, though now I wonder if you even understand what that means."

At his last remark, Lee finally regained a bit of her senses. Unfortunately for her, it had to be exactly the wrong part of her that returned.

The corners of her lips curled up in a smirk as she ignored the stinging of the small scratches and the cold on her legs. "Actually, though I don't know what exactly Atlas means when it comes to whatever the hell you are, I _do_ know that Atlas was a Greek Titan, brother of Prometheus and forced by Zeus to hold up the sky..."

'Atlas' growled at her smartassery, his tail whipping around and smashing holes in the walls to its sides, though it remained seemingly unaffected by the impact. If that didn't hurt him, or at least affect him in the slightest manner, then how on earth was she supposed to get out of here?

"How dare you insult my greatness by comparing me to a nonexistent being such as that...!" it practically spat at her. It continued to glare at her from where it stood, trying to intimidate her from a distance first before closing in.

Lee shrugged at his threat and replied, "Technically you were nonexistent to me before I met you as well. And there's nothing wrong with being compared to Greek mythology, as long as you don't go reenacting all the fucked up stories surrounding those guys."

"Well, I guess that if you know Greek mythology, then I am not sure if I should praise you for your intellect, or whether I should condemn you for coming to a place like this at a time like this despite said intelligence," Atlas responded, and she could have sworn that if it had had eyebrows, it would have raised them at her.

In that moment, Atlas decided that this conversation was dragging on too long and it was hungry. Smart or no, it was going to devour her nonetheless. It took her another step from Atlas in her direction to get her brain completely back on track and before she could curse herself for challenging this monster, she remembered that she was still holding her phone in her hand. Atlas seemed to notice her shift of attention, leaping the last few steps in one go, practically shoving its humongous face into hers.

She froze at the sudden movement and tried to crawl backwards, only to find her back hitting something, stopping her from going any farther away. In the meanwhile, Atlas sniffed a few more times and she could feel his breath on her skin. In her disgust, goose bumps appeared all over her body and a shiver ran down her spine.

But then, all of a sudden, it was Atlas's turn to freeze, its hungry grin turning into something that resembled a gaping mouth. Surprise was written all over its face, if that was even possible, and Lee frowned at the change in attitude.

Not waiting much longer, she took this moment to start typing a number into her phone, holding her screen just so that it couldn't see what she was doing. Thanking the gods for her need to mute her phone all the time, she managed to get halfway the only number she could think of entering into the device before Atlas noticed what she was up to.

"Oh no you don't!" it yelled and swiped its paw at her, catching her in the side and slamming her into the wall on the other side of the alley.

She let out a scream of anguish mixed with surprise. The blood pouring from her torso, turning the whiteness beneath her red, proved her point of his claws being able to slice her open in one go - but he hadn't even used those, yet.

Sliding down the wall and onto a pile of snow on the ground, the trembling floor beneath her ended up being her only way of indicating Atlas's position. It was too dark to really see anything, after all, and her head now also throbbed painfully from the impact.

"Not so cheeky now, are you?" Atlas chuckled again, not noticing that her fingers were working her phone once more.

A voice in her head screamed that she had to check if she was typing the right number, but there was no way to see her phone screen without drawing unwanted attention to it. It also seemed impossible for her to retrieve the business card from her wallet that she had put in a handbag, which had been part of her disguise. If she could, then she would have been able to grab her gun as well and shoot this bastard's head off.

So she pushed the voice away and continued typing as slow and unobvious as possible, counting and re-counting the digits inside her mind. As she pressed the call button, Atlas reached her body again, just in time to hear the dial tone and a click as the person on the other side picked up.

"Couldn't wait to hear from me again, could ya? I hope you can forgive me for taking the liberty of finding out your phone number, seeing as it was kinda unfair that you had my number but I didn't get anything in return, don't you think?"

"You bitch...!" Atlas growled, flinging his paw at her again to eliminate her phone, but she managed to shield it with her body just in time.

Instead, its paw practically punched her in the back and she yelped out.

"Where are you?" the phone spoke from beneath her and in that moment, Lee was rather glad that the man on the other side of the connection did not know of this fact. He seemed like the kind of guy who would enjoy hearing that, calling strangers 'babe' and all.

She quickly told him the address, and before the dial tone returned once more, she added, "Please hurry."

Atlas rolled her over onto her back, so that she was staring right up at its ugly face. The apathy on her face took it aback, her empty eyes staring right through its cloth-covered eyes. Her sudden change in attitude was mostly caused by the feeling of weakness that came from too much blood loss, combined with the need to aggravate Atlas even further, seeing as how that had worked in delaying the attack before, and the knowledge that help was on the way.

Now all she could do was hope that he would make it here in time.

Atlas seemed to be of the same mind, though probably for different reasons. It grinned as it opened its mouth, a black tongue slithering out to lick the single claw it had released. "I guess we'll just have to make the most of the time that we're left with, am I right?"

Without leaving any room for a reply, Atlas slammed its paw down, the claw burying itself in Lee's shoulder. Her eyes went wide and she opened her mouth to scream, but no sound came out - she just lay there, petrified as the pain entered her already bruised and battered body.

She gasped for breath when the claw left her flesh, more blood flooding out of her as she inhaled as much air as possible now that the pressure had left her breast. Spots were starting to dance in front of her eyes and the world started to spin, but still she managed to focus on Atlas. She tried her best to keep herself awake by noting all the irregularities in its appearance that would have bothered her tremendously were the situation completely different. The way that the cloth before its eyes didn't run in a straight line along its nose, or that one of its nostrils was a bit bigger than the other. The fact that its front paws were larger, though the muscles in the hind legs looked stronger than those in the front.

How it was neither animal nor human, yet she couldn't think of any explanation as to how or why. Or how she was supposed to prove this without everyone thinking that she had gone completely crazy. Or how she was supposed to survive this attack long enough for that bastard to get here.

Just a few moments after Atlas had retracted its claw, it gave her another smack, finding the lack of reaction somewhat depressing.

"Come on, now. Don't let the fun die down already," it remarked as it watched her soar through the air once more, all the way to the other end of the alley.

Lee expected her body to hit the floor there, expected to just lay still and die before the monster could reach her again, but instead she was met with something completely different.

"Didn't your mother ever teach you to not play with your food?" the voice she had only heard once more in her life spoke up. It had sounded so playful and arrogant back then, how come it had changed into this deep and serious tone?

It made another shiver run down her spine, and if she had had the energy left to do so, she would have blushed at her body's inappropriate reaction. She wasn't sure whether Dante had felt it or not, but he didn't comment on it as he slowly lowered her to the floor. He quickly checked her wounds over before focussing on Atlas, still standing where she had been lying a few seconds ago. A puddle of her blood stained the ground beneath it.

"Well, it wouldn't surprise me if she hadn't. Can't blame any mother whose child has a face like that," Dante taunted as he took a step towards the beast, his hand resting on the hilt of his sword. "Or maybe that's why you're hiding yourself under that piece of cloth?"

Atlas snarled at him before jumping into the sky, the two of them flying at each other, the sound of metal clashing against claws filling the air.

"Oh, did I hit a nerve perhaps?" Dante continued, the smirk on his face audible in his voice as he continued trading blows with Atlas.

Watching the battle from her awkward position on the ground, Lee could hardly believe her eyes at the inhuman abilities the man in red was displaying. There was a gap in her mind, something that held her back from understanding everything she was seeing. That monster, Atlas, and Dante... They weren't humans, it was obvious. There weren't mere wild beasts, either.

Still, she couldn't exactly care enough in that moment as she felt her eyes slowly close despite all her attempts to keep them open. She tried to move around and get her body out of its sleeping fit, but she found that she couldn't do anything through all the pain.

She barely registered Atlas escaping the alley with its tail between its legs and Dante making his way back to her, his face now worried as he softly shook her.

"Hey, stay awake, will you? I'll take you to a hospital," was all Lee heard before everything went black anyway.


	5. Sparks

The smell of the place she was in penetrated Lee's whole body and mind before she was even completely awake. Opening her eyes, she only confirmed that she was indeed lying in a hospital. Oh brother.

Her eyes automatically started roaming about on the ceiling, her mind at once going blank as she started counting the tiles up there. Her mind was still a bit fuzzy though, so she got stuck at the two-number digits a few times and had to recount them all to get it right.

Once she did, though, she let her eyes wander downwards. She was thankful for the fact that the room was free of pictures and posters hanging on the walls, that left her with one thing less to stress about while she was supposed to get better.

Next up, she turned her head left and right, noticing the many 'Get well' cards standing around her. Since when had she known so many people in the first place? Who actually liked her enough to spend money on her? Well, people _did _often forget such things when something bad happened.

'Oh, poor child, all alone by that age and getting into trouble like that!' Lee almost started feeling nauseated at the thought. Let's just hope they didn't like her enough to visit. She'd promptly throw herself Atlas's way if that actually happened.

At the thought of Atlas, she remembered what had happened the evening before in a flash - wait, had it actually been yesterday? For how long had she been out in the first place? What had happened anyway? She remembered calling Dante, and then Dante arriving, but after that, her mind went blank.

In her sudden wave of panic, she forced herself up into a sitting position, ignoring the screaming and protesting of her body and just gritting her teeth together, as though that might summon more willpower.

No longer in control of the whole situation, Lee's mind went reeling. She couldn't think straight, and in her stupor she ripped off the IV and other strings attached to her body. Finally, she swung her legs over the edge of the bed.

By now, she was already breathing heavily and the pain that her wounds were causing actually blinded her a little. Because of that, she didn't realise she had pushed herself off the bed until her feet met the cold floor - luckily not on the edge of a tile, or else everything would have been much worse. She only realised her mistake when her legs gave out, and with a whelp she crashed onto the ground.

As she lay there, groaning and begging for a swift, painless death, the door was thrown open and in James came rushing. A nurse came in right behind him as well.

"Boss!" he called, kneeling down next to her.

When he and the nurse, who was trying to calm Lee down with soft words, tried to help her back onto the bed, she refused to work with them. Her mind went into an overdrive at the sudden close proximity of a complete stranger. She didn't even let a close friend like James get near her most of the time, imagine her reaction when the two of them were practically hugging her all of a sudden!

"Shit, not right now, boss! We have to get you off the floor!" But she could no longer respond. Or breathe properly for that matter.

"She's suffocating," the nurse noted as she kept her distance from Lee. It hadn't taken her long to realise that she disliked contact with other people quite a bit.

James, on the other hand, just tried again, making all things even worse.

"Man, can't you take a hint?" a new voice came from outside, its owner turning out to belong to Dante. He came rushing in with a doctor by his side and he frowned at James.

While Dante busied himself with pulling James away from Lee, her mind figuratively clung to the man. That's right, this guy was work. A suspect, now a witness. He had saved her, come when she had called him. But, _why_ had she called him?

Something dawned on James and he noted her somewhat quieter state in Dante's presence. While feeling a little jealous that she had grown closer to this one guy in a few hours than to him over the years, he said, "Look, she's calming down. Pick her up."

And indeed, she merely continued to stare ahead of herself as Dante wrapped his arms around her, easily lifting her up into the air and onto her bed. For what it was worth, she even closed her eyes, secretly surprised by how pleasant a touch could be. And how it had been many, many years since she had been touched like this.

That, and she was trying her best to repress all her panic-inducing questions such as: _'Why can he lift me this easily?'_, _'How could he scare away a monster like 'Atlas'?'_ or, most of all, _'Is he actually human?' _She would try to find the solutions to these puzzles when her mental state had regained its former glory and wouldn't break down with the touch of a stranger's finger.

In no time at all, Lee was lying in bed again with all the strings attached once more and nobody in her near vicinity.

"Seems like you've got a weak spot for me, _babe_," Dante commented with a smirk once the nurse and doctor, who hadn't had anything interesting to tell other than that she'd be staying here for a short while, had left.

Lee shot him a glare before responding with, "Don't be silly. Personal affairs can freak me out, _you_, however, are strictly a part of my job at the moment. So don't get cocky, and for fuck's sake, stop calling me 'babe'."

Although at first James had felt more jealousy towards Dante, that soon happened to be replaced by amusement as he realised the entertaining bickering that would most likely ensue between the two of them.

This was promptly proven by Dante himself, who rubbed his stubbled jaw, a thoughtful expression on his face. "You tell me it's your job to do me, and we all know you choose jobs by searching for what you love to do. And then you also go mentioning rather suggestive words such as 'cocky' and 'fucking' in the very same sentence, so I'm not quite sure what I'm supposed to think here, m'dear."

James clapped his hands in front of his mouth to stop himself from laughing out loud. Luckily for him, Dante was already on the receiving end of Lee's anger, so he guessed he would be safe. At least for now.

Angered by this bastard taunting her all the time, she got up again despite James suddenly stopping with laughing and starting to protest. She leaned over towards Dante and flicked him between the eyes.

"Ow!" he yelled, holding a hand over the sore spot. "But see, you're only proving my point. I'm irresistible for you to touch."

As he exclaimed that, he lifted his hands into the air, giving her the perfect opportunity to flick him again.

"Ow! See!" he yelled again, but this time he moved away from her and her wrath.

Just when James had managed to push her back down without causing her too much pain, the door opened again. This time, neither a nurse nor a doctor entered, though.

"Chief!" James exclaimed as the head of Lee's department walked in, completely forgetting that he had been busy with keeping her down but half a second ago. While James bowed low in a sign of respect, Lee merely frowned at her boss's appearance.

He kept looking over at Dante. He tried to play it off casually, as though he were curious about the stranger, but she noticed he looked rather distraught by Dante's presence.

"Yes, hello. I decided it to be appropriate to visit one of my best men in the hospital during a free moment. I trust everything is fine with your health, for as far as that is possible right now?" Chief finally said once he focussed his attention onto her, not seeming to calm down as he did so.

"Ah, yes, thank you," she began while trying her best to hide the uneasiness his presence suddenly brought her, before remembering the stupid man sitting next to her and adding, "This is Dante. He is... helping us with the case."

She hoped no one would comment on her leaving out the part where he actually happened to be a suspect.

The Chief nodded at Dante with a small smile and Dante returned the gesture. Then the Chief returned to Lee again, a serious expression on his face once more. "Ah, yes... About the case."

She sat up again, this time in anticipation as to what kind of news she was about to receive on her work. James was too occupied with not disturbing the Chief to push her down again.

"I think it would be best if you were to hand the case over to someone else."

Frozen, Lee could only stare at her boss. He was kidding, right? After all she had done and _sacrificed_, putting her life on the line to find the killer... And now she was expected to simply 'give up'? How could she possibly do that, when someone else might not get it right? He would have to start over, from scratch, and who knew how many more lives would be ended because of such a fatal mistake.

"What? You can't just do that!" she retorted, anger slowly rising inside of her.

"B-boss...!" James whispered at her. He tried to get her to back down; threatening her boss was an obvious no-go, but she ignored him anyway.

"Yes, I can. And I will," the Chief cut both of them off. Fury was visible in his own eyes as well, which caused her to back down a little.

Her boss had never been one to be angered by so little no matter how many times she had defied him in the past, so the fact that he was agitated over her one protest this time surprised her a little. Why, all of a sudden, did he seem adamant in getting her off this case? He knew how she threw her whole being into everything she did, so he knew that he would be killing off part of her by forcing her away from her job.

"You're tired and not thinking straight because of the pressure this case is causing you. Exactly because of that you're now in this position, in hospital. You'll have to hand over all your notes and the evidence you have gathered to the next person to whom I assign this job and then you'll leave it behind, do you hear me?" he went on.

The more he said, the harder she clenched her hands into fists, her knuckles going completely white as she did so. She knew that no matter what she was planning on saying, he wouldn't take it back.

"Why would someone like you ruin her life by holding onto one single job? You're very intelligent, you can have any you want. Just let this one go."

A shiver ran down her spine at his words, though she didn't know why. She didn't know anything, at the moment. Her mind had gone completely blank again, her hands relaxing on the sheets. She stared at them, unmoving, throbbing painfully after the tight position she had forced them in a few moments ago, and merely nodded at whatever insanity the Chief was spewing at her.

A hand found its way to her shoulder, though she couldn't tell whose it was. In that moment, she couldn't care less and merely continued staring at her hands.

"I'm glad you understand me. Then I shall leave you to recover as quick as possible. There will be a lot of work waiting for you when you do!" He probably meant to cheer her up, but it didn't help an iota. She just felt relieved when he finally left the room, and she thought that _he_ almost looked relieved to be able to leave, too.

The thought left her mind immediately, though, as James and Dante turned their attention to her. James because he had known Lee and her stubbornness for years, and Dante just because he had a hunch.

"So?" they both asked at the same time.

"So what?" she mumbled, acting confused. She knew exactly what they were asking.

"Are you really...?" James began.

He thought that would be enough, but Dante helped him finish his sentence anyway, "Going to quit?"

Lee finally lifted her eyes from her hands and a small smile found its way onto her lips. "What do you think?"


	6. From Butterflies to Hurricanes

**[A/N] **** Jeralee: **it's a pleasure to receive a review from you, an author whose stories I have been following :D I wanted to you reply to your review itself, but the site said that you had disabled the private messaging feature so I'm keeping my fingers crossed and hoping you will read this. I'm really happy to hear that you like the story so far, and thank you very much for the compliments, they seriously make my week! Though I have to tell you, in secret Lee actually isn't an OC at all. I originally posted this story on the site 'Ghosts of the Vanguard', where readers as characters are far more common. Because those aren't very popular on this site, I edit it to give her a name and change the POV when I post the chapters on this site, for my readers' pleasure over here. I hope you'll stay tuned because I sure as hell am planning on writing more! :D

* * *

A week, or maybe two or three - Lee really hadn't bothered counting - later found her sitting on her bed, legs crossed, as she read a book she had always wanted to pick up but never quite found the time for, with her work and all. However, the lovely silence was interrupted when a nurse she had seen more often than not during her stay but of whom she had never bothered to remember the name of - she didn't bother to remember a lot of things these days - entered her room with a bright smile.

"So, I guess you'll be leaving soon, right?" she started as she began to check Lee's vitals, reading most of them off the machinery still attached to her.

"This afternoon, actually," she added. Already knowing what to do, she removed her shirt so that the nurse had better access to her wounds.

While the nurse busied herself with Lee's bandages, she went back to reading in her book to try and ignore the close proximity of this woman inside her personal bubble. The nurse had learned of her dislike of close contact with people with her first episode, though, so she knew to try and keep some distance between the two of them.

"You must be excited to leave again, huh?" she asked as she finished replacing the bandages and immediately took a step back to give her patient some space.

Lee shrugged, noting that the pain now only felt like she had done some vigorous work-out the day before. Much better than the feeling of knives poking her flesh from in the beginning. "I guess so."

"Oh, don't be so cool about it. Didn't you end up here because of your job? That would make anybody think that you're very attached to it," the nurse went on, dumping the dirtied bandages in the trash can by the side of the door before she went to sit next to Lee on the bed, at the far end away from her.

"I don't think I'll be working properly anytime soon, though," she muttered and turned a page of her book.

The nurse looked at her hands in her lap, a sad expression on her face as she did so. "Yes, I heard of the conversation between you and your boss. I'm sorry to hear."

The other held back a scoff, doubting she was actually sorry for her. People always said that to act kind and interested, when they'd rather move onto another subject that might centre more around themselves.

To her surprise, that wasn't the case this time. "I sincerely hope everything will get better for you. But I've got to go and see some other patients now. I hope to see you again before you leave."

Without waiting for a response from her, probably having grown accustomed to her silence, the nurse left the room while humming a soft tune. Lee stared after her, wondering if there actually might be people out there who weren't all fake like she had thought before returning her attention to her book.

With a grumble, she realised she didn't even feel like reading any longer. So instead, she put her shirt back on and decided to go over her notes once more, in preparation for her first steps out of this place.

Later that day, Dante came by for the first time since he had witnessed her being thrown out of the case by the Chief. For one, she had told him to stay away because the only reason that she'd contact him would be for said case, and that would merely conjure suspicion from everyone who thought she had accepted her defeat.

Also, because Dante himself had been busy too, though she wasn't quite sure whether she actually wanted to know what it was that he had been doing or not.

But anyway, it had been a good moment to think everything through very thoroughly. He had abnormally white hair for his age, and those blue eyes didn't seem entirely human either. The way he had caught her when she had been thrown into the air by Atlas and how he had actually fought the beast afterwards - she had remembered more of her trip downtown once a few days had passed - scaring him off and then carrying her, probably with ease, to this hospital. And then how he had picked her off the floor and onto the bed a few days ago. She didn't know exactly how much she weighed, it still seemed unlikely that anybody would be able to lift her up with such ease, without even a grunt or anything.

He had also known about the case from the very beginning. Hadn't he warned her, after all? And wasn't his business called '_Devil May Cry_'? That in itself seemed rather strange. Was that what he was, then? A devil? _The_ devil? But then what on earth could one call Atlas? It seemed rather unlikely that _the_ devil would have trouble with whatever the hell that had been. Or if Atlas was the devil, then he wouldn't have run off from Dante like that, would he?

The more she thought about it, the more confused she ended up making herself, so she had set out to ask him any and all questions that she had the next time he would come to visit her. Which was today, right now.

"Well damn, if it isn't my favourite detective who specially requested my presence inside the space of her personal bubble," Dante yelled as he stormed into Lee's room and she almost regretted her decision to ask him to come.

She hung her head just to get her point across, too.

"Aww come on. Don't be like that! You know I enjoy having privileges when it comes to you. Makes me feel special, you know, honey?"

Rubbing her temples and closing her eyes, she tried to focus on the problem at hand instead of her irritation.

"Dante, this is important. Be serious," she scolded him while crossing her arms. His eyes wandered downwards from her face and as she repressed a sigh, she concluded that had been the wrong thing to do. Luckily, she always crossed her arms _over_ her breasts, not _under_ them.

"First, what's the magic word?" Dante replied with that bloody twinkle in his eyes once he made eye contact with her again.

Lee was almost regretting her decision to leave no stone unturned, wishing that she had left this huge, ugly rock right where it belonged. At the bottom of the ocean where it couldn't bother anybody but the fish and other animals that lived down there. Though even now, she knew that Dante would close the gap between herself and this mystery case. Unfortunately.

Plus, no matter how much she hated it, her body seemed to be... _enjoying_ his presence. It seemed as though her brain calmed down when he was near, and though she was inexperienced when it came to this subject, she wasn't oblivious to the rate of her heartbeat quickening its pace and the sudden increase of sweat that her body excreted at just the thought of him. She didn't like this at all, so she mostly just ignored it. Not that she was ever going to admit all this out loud to anybody, anyway. Atlas eating her was more likely to happen than that.

With a roll of her eyes, Lee did as Dante wanted. "_Please_."

He smiled once more, said, "Thank you," and then did a complete one-eighty; all humour disappearing in the blink of an eye. It almost seemed as though he had been preparing himself for this moment. Well, it was rather obvious this conversation had to take place someday, right?

"Alrighty then... Shoot. Not literally, of course, though if you feel like you need to... Then shoot anyway," Dante began, confusing her a little.

Had that been another joke? But he didn't look like he was joking? Come on, she was the smartest person she knew, she could figure this stupid riddle out. And just then, combining the spoken words with an image of the 'fight' or whatever one wanted to call it, between Dante and Atlas, it clicked inside her mind: he _was_ being serious. He meant what he said... One could shoot him and he'd be perfectly fine.

"You're not one of them, are you?" she asked him as she looked him dead in the eye. He didn't back down, avert eye contact or anything else. From that, she concluded that he was very comfortable with being whatever he was. So he had been like 'this' all his life, or at least a large part of it, and had had enough time to get used to it. Also, his bright blue eyes were very much appreciated by her body. God damn it, not right now...

Dante raised an eyebrow at her and she hoped it was because of her question and her genius, not because of her traitorous body revealing its admiring of him.

"You mean 'one of them' as in, am I a partner of the Atlas or am I that which the Atlas also is?" he finally responded, relieving Lee of her anxiety and giving her something to think about at the same time.

"Both? But I'm guessing from the reactions of you two during that confrontation that you're not a friend of Atlas, or _the_ Atlas, or whatever," she added, wiping her hands off of the sheets she was sitting on.

"Correct. And yes, you could say I am one of them on the other question."

She tilted her head to the side, trying to grasp what he meant. "'You could say'? That's not an actual 'yes', is it?"

Dante suddenly grinned again. He himself felt rather relieved as well: relieved she hadn't run off screaming yet at the thought that he wasn't exactly human.

"Okay, look, let me sing you the song of my people." Lee shot him a warning look, but that didn't work out so well when she actually found his joke to be amusing, so he just continued, "Once, there was a mighty demon called Sparda, the Legendary Dark Knight-"

He stopped when he saw her open her mouth to interrupt him, but he answered her question before she could even ask it. "Yes, there are demons and there's even a Hell or whatever you want to call it where they live."

She closed her mouth, realising there wasn't anything she could actually ask about that. Demons existed, and so did some kind of underworld of sorts. Got it.

"Well, first of all, there was of course a ruler of this Hell, called Mundus, also known as the Prince of Darkness, the Dark Emperor, the Devil King, the Devil Prince, and last but questionably not least, _Pluto_. Take your pick." He didn't actually give her enough time to choose a favourable nickname.

"As you may have noticed from his titles, he wasn't exactly a good guy. About two millennia ago, he killed the previous Demon King and planned to lead an assault on the world we're in right now, the Human World. And that's where our hero, the great Sparda, comes in. You see, he was a chief general in Mundus's army. The story goes that he 'awoke to justice'." Dante used finger quotes to emphasise his point before continuing, "and all by himself, he defeated the evil king Mundus, after which he disappeared, though we know he ruled over the human race and protected them, even though this caused him to be branded a traitor by other demons."

Dante cleared his throat and Lee wondered if he had finished the story. She felt that she had missed something and asked herself what this had to do with the question whether Dante was 'one of them' or not, but before she could say anything, he went on again.

"Anyway, skipping forward a few years, the hero Sparda met and fell in love with a lovely female human, whose name was Eva. She was beautiful, with long, flowing, golden hair and a friendly face that always had a smile ready for loved ones..." Dante trailed off, his eyes unfocussed as though he were in a place far, far away. Lee shifted uncomfortably at the sudden silence and coughed a few times to bring him back into the present.

"Yes, sorry," Dante muttered as he shook his head a bit before continuing, "Sparda and Eva, they fell in love, married and had twins. Everything was fine and well until their eighth birthday, when Mundus finally got his revenge on Sparda for defeating him, his demons killing Eva. How Sparda himself died, no one really knows. But Eva gave her life protecting her sons; the older twin, named Vergil, disappearing to who knows where and the younger twin, standing right here, helping you defeat a demon because that's what he does. Is that enough of an answer for you?"

Dante watched Lee in anticipation, while she sat unmoving on her bed. Her mind, on the other hand, was racing about like it never had before, trying to wrap itself around what she had just been told.

Demons existed. They came from some Hell and had wanted to take over the 'human' world. The world that she had always considered to be the one and only real world out there. And Dante's _father_ had defeated them. Half-human, half-demon, then. It explained the name of his business, _Devil May Cry _and his cheap-looking office because how many people could possibly come to his door, looking for a demon exterminator? The hair, the eyes, the way he had managed to hold her as though she weighed nothing more than a tennis ball or how he had fought back against Atlas... It all seemed so obvious now. And he had made it quite clear that he was on 'her side', whatever that may be.

Okay. She could live with this.

"You alright? Should I have sung the song a little slower?" Dante offered. He now looked rather concerned and even a bit frightened. Why on Earth would he be scared for her reaction? How many humans had he already scared off and what would one more matter to the list?

Though a little shaken at this sudden revelation, Lee still managed a smile for him as she pushed away the thought of since when she had become considerate of other people's feelings. She told herself that this guy happened to be a half-demon and she didn't want to know what kind of torture he could make her suffer if she was to get on his bad side.

"No, it's fine. Thank you for the information, I think I should thank you for this major breakthrough on the case," she replied before he could say any more. She felt pleased with the relieved look on Dante's face, before scolding herself that she shouldn't become so attached to a witness.

It was just for this one job. When she closed this case, she'd put this all behind herself and go back to living life the way she had before she knew all this.

Still, Lee wondered if she would ever be able to go back in the first place. More specifically, if she would ever _want_ to go back.


	7. Promises

"So, just to make sure, you know how to change your bandages?" a nurse Lee hadn't seen before asked her as she checked everything over one last time.

It seemed as though this woman planned on making that last time the longest one, too.

Still, Lee nodded her head, pushing her irritation at these formalities to the side. The nurse was only doing her job, just as Lee wanted to get back to doing hers.

"And you're going to make sure that you'll refresh them _at least_ twice a day?" she continued, her eyes wandering over the clipboard she had been holding in her hands for the past fifteen minutes now.

Lee didn't even bother moving this time, assuming the nurse would assume her nod either way. She hadn't looked up from that board since the beginning of this interrogation in the first place.

"Have you already looked at the pills you're going to have to keep on taking when you've been released?"

Yes, and she had also checked that they worked well with the other medication she was on, mostly against her insomnia. Also what the side effects of an overdoses might be if her OCD were to attack.

"Also, an extra note from the doctor, of which he has already notified your boss..." the nurse began again, flipping through the week worth of paper Lee's vitals had filled up, "You're supposed to continue resting at home, because your wounds haven't recovered enough for you to be up and about too much. So the doctor suggests you either take it easy, or just stay at home for another week or so, and even after that just really be careful for maybe a month. So don't jump back into work, but take your time and-"

"Do you have diarrhea right now?"

The nurse's face went red at the embarrassing question as she wondered how her patient could have possibly come to such a question. Because this happened to be the first time for said patient to meet her, Lee felt no sympathy towards her like she did towards the other nurses who had put up with her during her stay.

"W-what? No? Why?" the nurse asked, her stuttering not making Lee want to hold her crude comments any longer.

"Because you're spouting out so much shit right now." And with that, she jumped off the bed, gathered her coat and other things before making her way towards the door. "I'll do whatever I want, whenever I want and no matter how many years some person spent studying books at school, I won't listen to what he thinks is best for my body, thank you very much."

After a quick pat of her pockets to make sure she had everything on her, she left the nurse stand baffled. She knew fully well that she merely had to sign something at the receptionist's desk to get out of this place.

James surprised her by standing at aforementioned desk when she entered the main room downstairs. He grinned at her, obviously happy at her being released. The office was far too quiet without her doing her rituals and criticising the clothes of other people.

"Hey boss," he greeted her once she stood in front of him. "I bet you're happy to get out of here, right? Go on, sign the papers first and we'll talk on our way out."

Lee hadn't even had the time to respond, the corners of her lips twitching upwards in a smile as she walked past him and up to the desk. The woman sitting behind it watched her cautiously, probably already having heard many stories from the other nurses who had met her. Not that it bothered her, or anything.

"Can I sign the papers to leave?" Lee asked, not even trying to be polite. She just wanted to get out of this Hell hole as soon as possible.

The receptionist raised an eyebrow at the other's attitude, but with a shake of her head gathered and handed Lee the papers in question. With a sigh of relief, the detective lifted a pen lying about on the desk, attached to the wood by an annoying twirling cord that kept getting in the way. After she had won the battle, she scribbled something that may or may not have resembled her signature at the bottom of the page, not bothering to read what was written on it. Practically throwing the pen away and sliding the contract back towards the receptionist, who shook her head again at Lee's hastiness, she strode off in the direction of the exit, James scrambling to follow her in his surprise.

"H-hey, are you that desperate to get out of here?" he yelped, and then squealed again when she stopped without warning him first. He managed to keep himself from colliding against her back, not wanting to burst her personal bubble.

Lee ignored his rambling as she closed her eyes and took in a deep breath, relinquishing the smell of non-hospital air and drowning in the sea of sounds that belonged to the outside world, no longer surrounded by the mechanical bleeping of hospital machinery.

"Boss, are you alright?" James asked then, interrupting her reveries.

With an incoherent grumble, she redirected her attention towards her assistant. "Yes, I'm perfectly fine. Just because I was hospitalised doesn't mean that you should freak out at every one of my moments."

"'Just because you were hospitalised'? Boss, you could have died! You do know that, right?" the boy retorted, throwing his arms in the air in frustration. Passers-by were already starting to stare at the scene they were causing, and she had barely even left the hospital.

"Yes, but I didn't, did I? Everything went fine and I met the culprit," Lee responded coolly. She didn't want to get into trouble right now, so she tried to act calm so that James would become less agitated as well.

Her plan backfired, however, and James interpreted the way she distanced herself from the conversation as though she didn't care about the situation at all. He stared at her, incredulous, and muttered, "You really don't give a shit, do you?"

Okay, no use trying to get him to calm down. She was going to face him head on, then.

"Yes, I do, and you know that. But it's in the past now, and I truly am fine. What use will worrying about it do now?" she asked him and pulled him to the side so that they weren't blocking the entrance any longer.

"It shows that you were capable of doing it once, which means you might do it again someday. And then you might not be so lucky."

For once, Lee wasn't quite sure what to say, her smart mouth running off and leaving her behind. Only now did she realise the effects that her actions could have on other people, people who still cared about her wellbeing. She wasn't on her own anymore and had to be considerate of other people's feelings again. She didn't know whether this was something to happy over or not, though.

A sigh left her lips and her shoulders sagged, exhaustion suddenly washing over her. "Okay, you're right. I'm sorry, okay? Next time, I'll try to think things through more thoroughly."

James didn't look convinced yet. Instead, he crossed his arms over his chest and gave her another look that told her exactly that, after which she sighed again and lifted one hand into the air. "I promise."

Knowing that Lee always kept her promises, James now let his posture relax, a burden being lifted from his shoulders.

"Thank you," he said, a small smile appearing on his face. "Now let's get you home, alright?"

Now it was her turn to give the man an incredulous stare. "You've got to be kidding me, right? I've just been cooped up inside this shitty place for I don't even want to know how long and you're sending me home the minute I'm free? We're going to the office right now to figure something out about this case, got it?"

But James countered her defiance with another look that gave her no room for objections. The fact that she actually had nothing to say in response at the seriousness in his face made her wonder what had happened to the young, inexperienced boy who used to be so easy for her to push around all the time. Had he grown up so much since the last time she had properly evaluated his personality?

"How many more times do I have to tell you that you should rest more often? You're so stubborn, it's more likely you'll kill yourself, and not some psycho murderer whose case you're investigating," James retorted, but the expression on his face told her he wasn't done with persuading her just yet.

With a roll of her eyes, Lee leaned with her back against the wall of the hospital she had been standing next to. "Fine. Humour me, if you must."

James held up a finger in the air, the seriousness now taken over by a hint of amusement showing in his eyes. "Our third case together, the case after which you stopped calling me 'puppy'. You remember that, don't you?"

"You expect me to forget one of my cases, James? You disappoint me, _puppy_," she replied with a grin before recounting, "The Chopper. Sick guy who liked to chop up women and spread the body parts all over the city."

"Yes. And you had gotten so deep into it, you 'forgot' to eat, drink and sleep and ended up fainting on my doorstep when you came to collect me for another interrogation. I had to take care of you for a week because you refused to go to the hospital and threatened to get the Chief to fire me if I did so."

"Okay, fine, that was just stupid. But you've got to admit, I've improved since then."

James shook his head and added another finger to the one he was still holding high. "Our twelfth case. That guy who kidnapped young girls, instead tying dogs to the spot where he had taken them, leaving a note with a clue in their collars."

Lee frowned at the mention of that and wondered out loud, "Wait, I don't remember anything unusual happening there?"

"No? Well, that's because it had been raining all week and you had been out and about almost all day. You had gotten quite sick, so sick that you didn't even call into work for a few days. Nobody knew what had happened to you until I decided to check up on you, finding you half dead on your bed. You actually finished that case while you were sick... With my help, of course."

"Ah, so that explains why I never could properly remember how the twelfth case had been solved. Proves just what a genius I am, I guess," she gloated as she ran a hand through her hair.

"Boss... The point is, you need to take better care of yourself. I could stand here all day, naming all the cases where something went wrong because you neglected your health. And that's why I'm now going to take you home and tell the Chief to fire you if he sees you at the office in the next three days," James threatened, finally lowering his hand.

"Wait, you can't actually make him do that, I'm the best man he has!" she told him, but he ignored her and merely started making his way towards his car.

Having no other choice but to follow him, that was exactly what she did, asking him about his threat all the way. When he didn't respond to anything she said, she gave up with a sigh.

"Fine, I promise to look after myself better now. At least, I'll _try_ to. But you know how fired up I can get when I want to solve a case," she muttered.

"Yes, I know that better than anybody else. But you're not on your own anymore, haven't been for years, so please just rely on me a bit more. You'll see just how useful I've become thanks to your Spartan training," James finally replied. The smile on his face managed to cheer her up a little, too.

"Of course you're useful. You've been trained by the very best, after all."

"Now that's pushing it."

"It's only the truth."

"..."

"If you can't handle the truth, you shouldn't have become my assistant. You know that."

"Don't you have a murderer you want to capture by luring him out?"

"Yes, but weren't you listening during this whole conversation where I promised to be more careful from now on?"

"Damn it all."


	8. Vision Driver

**[A/N] Jeralee: **Ah yes, I understand that. I remember reading your A/N about that and I think I tried to review to cheer you up a little, though I'm not 100% sure about that, but I never knew their behaviour was that bad D: About reader-inserts: 'officially' they're not allowed on here, but I posted one anyway. I thought I'd switch this story to third person to see if more people would be willing to read it, but Devil May Cry is a big fandom so I don't think it's a very fair 'experiment' xD And I'm glad that you like James and Lee's interactions with him! Most of the negative reviews I received from my other 'popular' story were about how the story didn't revolve 100% around the pairing and they wanted more romance and no story =_= So I'm happy to hear you like them :D

* * *

One night, many fruitless attempts to sleep and a haze-induced frenzy with so many images, possibilities and thoughts concerning the case flitting about in front of her later, Lee was lounging on the couch that stood perfectly in the middle of her living room. On the elegant saloon table placed exactly half a metre away from the sofa, piles of papers were stacked on top of each other, most of them not scientific, instead concerning myths about 'demons' and the like. After all, what she might have seen could've been hallucinated because of the pain, and Dante might be a lying bastard. That still didn't explain the reason why she had been in pain in the first place, so she continued to search for a logical answer, if such a thing even existed in the first place.

An old grandfather clock that stood in the middle of two large bookshelves situated behind her couch chimed twelve o'clock, bringing her out of her reading frenzy.

"Damn," she muttered under her breath as she realised that she had forgotten to take her medication, and that it might be time to put on some new bandages. She hadn't done so the evening before; she just hadn't felt like doing it and had 'forgotten' it.

Not like she actually felt like doing it right now, but she thought that maybe she didn't need any additional 'quirks', like an irrational fear of germs, by neglecting her wounds and causing them to become infected.

Getting up from her spot after neatly placing the book she had been reading on the table, she made her way towards her kitchen and hoped that she hadn't left the needed supplies upstairs in the bathroom or her bedroom. She had found that her physical form had deteriorated quite horribly since the 'attack'. Normally, she could have climbed the usual flight of stairs to the upper floor of her house in but a few strides without a problem, but now she found that she had to take it slow and steady, and even then she was practically gasping for breath when she was finally upstairs. And she _hated_ doing things slow and steady.

Much to her relief, Lee found her medicine next to the basin and a few fresh rolls of bandages and whatever else she needed in one of her cupboards. She had to ask James to bring her some more next time he planned on coming around, which was sure to be soon enough, knowing his worrywarting ass.

By now, her body was slowly starting to protest against movement again, so she quickly swallowed whatever pills the doctor had told her to take with a glass of water. Once she had gotten that out of the way, she pulled off her shirt, folded it and placed it on the dinner table, her bra following it, albeit much slower because the strap shifted uncomfortably over the wound.

As she made her way back to the couch with the bandages and whatnot, she gingerly pulled off the dressing so that she could inspect the damage done to her body. She wasn't quite sure whether she was supposed to be glad that it looked okay - as okay as such a wound could possibly look, anyway - or to be disappointed because it hadn't been a dream and it was still there.

Lee placed the dressing with its dirty side up on one of her books on the table and dropped the fresh supplies on the couch before sitting down herself.

Though she had told that nurse she knew how to change her bandages, she actually had no clue as to what she was supposed to do. She unrolled one of the bandages until she held one long piece of cloth in the air, and then she realised that she was supposed to put on the dressing first. Still, how was she supposed to wind that whole bandage around her torso and shoulder if she couldn't properly move the arm attached to her wounded shoulder?

The answer presented itself to her when she heard a tapping on her window to her left, where the backdoor was. Forgetting the fact that she was half-naked, and not really caring either, she straightened her back and turned slightly to see who it was.

She was surprised to see Dante leaning against the window, his hands shaped like a binocular placed in front of his face to help him look inside. She could almost feel his gaze meet hers, and a shiver ran through her body as she was reminded to her meeting with Atlas, when she had felt its stare as well.

When Dante realised that she wasn't wearing anything, he made a sound that seemed like a grunt, jumped back and tried to act as nonchalantly as possible, whistling as he did so. With a smile at his antics, Lee shook her head and forsook collecting the rest of her clothes in the kitchen. He had seen her now, so what did it matter? Plus, this would be the perfect opportunity to bully the man a little.

She opened the door and Dante spun around, expecting that she had made herself look decent again. Instead, he froze at the sight of her breasts, his mouth wide open in what he had planned would be his greeting.

A smirk graced her features as she stood there in the doorway, leaning against the door. For good measure, she crossed her arms, for this one time under her breasts.

Her victory was short-lived, however, and it took the man shorter than she had expected to get back on track. "Are you happy to see me or are you just cold?"

Feeling bold, probably because of those medications or something, she laughed and gave him the satisfaction of not answering that question. And after all, she felt uncomfortable with lying.

"I didn't prepare for your arrival, if that's what you're thinking. I was actually just about to put on some new bandages, but I kind of got stuck. Your perfect timing might be able to help me out," she finally said as she stepped aside to let him in.

His eyes ventured higher, towards her shoulder, and he let out a low whistle. "That looks worse than I had expected."

"Yeah, well, what're you gonna do?" Lee shrugged with one shoulder and closed the door behind him.

"By the way, didn't the nurses show you how to refresh your bandages yourself?" Dante asked her as he ventured farther into her home.

"I have more important things to remember than how to do something like that," the other responded while she made her way back over to the kitchen, planning on fetching him something to drink. Maybe if she acted like a nice hostess, he would help her in return.

Dante didn't respond for he was too busy feeling slightly taken aback by the perfection with which the woman's room had been furnished. To his right were the two large bookcases with the grandfather clock in the middle. Both bookcases were filled from top to bottom, though he noticed many of them now also filled the saloon table. Upon closer inspection, he would see that each and every book had its assigned spot, of course in alphabetical order. His fingers twitched at the perfection at it, but Lee could practically feel the disturbance his thoughts were causing from all the way over in the kitchen.

"Don't even think about it!"

Dante gulped and kept his hands clasped behind his back as he continued exploring.

The couch must have been placed in the middle of the room, and he wouldn't even be surprised if Lee had crawled around with a tapeline to realise this. He was also sure that there was some kind of correlation between the position of the saloon table to the couch, or something else in the room. There was another, smaller armchair placed at what Dante guessed to be a perfect ninety degrees angle with the couch, which had the same colour, and had the same amount of distance between it and the table. Under these pieces of furniture was a circle rug: faded, old, and - surprise surprise - in perfect harmony with the rest of the room, filling up just enough of the room for the table, couch and matching armchair to stand on, but not touching anything else.

To the right of the sofa was the front door, and by its sides stood two plants that even he could discern were fakes. Lee probably didn't have enough time to take care of real ones, he presumed. He didn't acknowledge the rest of the room, finding that looking around hurt his eyes. To the front of the couch was the opening to the kitchen - no door - where Lee was just coming out of, holding a glass of lemonade.

"Didn't have anything else," she stated before he could complain about not wanting that, giving him no other choice than to accept it.

"Wow, thanks," Dante responded with a grin before placing it somewhere on the saloon table where he was sure she might not get mad at him.

Then he motioned towards the couch and waited for her to sit down before he joined her.

"Come on, let's get this over with," he suggested, wanting to get Lee's too large amount of flesh out of his sight. Not that he didn't like seeing what he saw, he just found it a little uncomfortable when the one showing all the flesh acted like it was nothing. Couldn't she at least act overly comfortable and smug, and not as though she were still actually wearing something?!

Lee obliged and quickly turned her head away so that her hair wouldn't get in the way while he grabbed the dressing and other needed things. Though Dante thought she acted as if this were nothing, deep inside she was burning red in embarrassment. Not that her mind agreed with this, just that her body was writhing underneath the level of self-control she could practice over it. The worst thing was that she didn't even know why it reacted like this when it came to Dante. Dante was work, he would leave her life as soon as this was over. She had never felt like this with anybody else, so why all of a sudden right now, and with a guy she had only seen a handful of times nonetheless? It would have even been more logical to suddenly feel attracted to _James_, after years of knowing and being around him.

Dante's fingertips brushed against the skin of her shoulder as he pressed the sides of the dressing to make it stay put. As he did so, he felt a tiny tremor beneath his fingers and frowned at the sudden tension hanging in the air. With a shrug, he dubbed it 'crazy women stuff' and went to grab the rolls of bandages, starting with the unwound one she had dropped on the couch earlier.

All the while, Lee stared straight ahead at the bookshelves behind the couch, her eyes roaming over the various titles she had gathered over the course of the years. Then she inspected the clock, going over the decorations on it. She could probably draw it without looking at it by now, having examined and stared at it for so many times. Quite ironically, she had gotten the grandfather clock from her grandfather, who had been the most important person in her life, right up until his death.

He had been the only one to accept Lee as she was, like her parents never could. No, they much preferred her sister, who wasn't quite normal either, but she was at least better than Lee was, according to their parents. Not that it mattered any more. Both her parents had died in a 'tragic' accident, but she hadn't even bothered going to their funeral, hadn't had contact with the rest of her family since. Except for her grandfather. But he, too, was long gone, so all of it didn't matter.

"Yoohoo, anybody home?" Dante inquired, snapping his fingers in front of her face.

With a shake of her head, Lee brought herself back to this time and age, all sentimental thoughts leaving her mind as you did so.

"Right, thanks. Let me put my clothes back on," she mumbled, abruptly getting up without waiting for another word to leave Dante's mouth.

In the kitchen, she put her clothes back on as slowly as she could, just to have something to do. When she had straightened her shirt, she let out a long breath and ran a hand through her hair.

"Get yourself together, damn," she told herself with a slap to her cheeks before joining Dante again on the sofa.

"So, why are you here, actually? How did you even get my address in the first place?" Lee asked him, suddenly realising that it would've been all to convenient if he had just stopped by in that exact moment she needed some help with her bandages. She might be a little slower than usual because of all the meds in her system, but that didn't mean she was stupid.

"I just wanted to tell you that I've been looking out for that bastard and that I haven't sensed, seen or smelled him since you got hospitalised," Dante replied, handily leaving out the part of how he knew where she lived. Probably had gotten it out of James, anyway.

"Wait, you can smell like that?" Lee wondered out loud. She hadn't met any other so-called 'half-demons', after all, and she was going to make the most out of her acquaintance with this one.

"Why does that one interest you, but not the sensing part? No, I can't really smell better. Or see better, either. Sorry to disappoint you. Hearing, on the other hand..."

She held up a hand to silence him, not needing to hear him say any more to know that he was on his way to say something dirty. The pout on his face told her that she had been right, but something else was on her mind now.

"The people at the hospital..." she began, a frown on her face all of a sudden.

"You mean the doctors and nurses? They're kind people, you know. Save people for a living and all that," Dante intercepted and held his hands up defensively when Lee shot him a glare.

"Yes, and I make my living catching the people who might kill them for a living, while guys like you do... I don't even know what you do for a living," she retorted, but she wasn't particularly interested. Or she had just figured it out by herself, judging by the huge sword he had lugged around in the night he fought Atlas. Or just simply by the way how he had fought Atlas in the first place.

"Glad you asked, I-"

Lee silenced him by pressing her finger to his lips. "Those _nurses_ and _doctors_ at the hospital, right? What did you tell them about what happened?"

Dante shrugged and waited for her to retract her hand so his mouth once more had free reign. "Your boy-"

"_James_."

"-said that your Chief-dude had explained it to them. Told them some drunk with a sickle had attacked you," he finished.

"What about my head-wound?" she asked, growing more confused with every passing second.

When Atlas had thrown her against the wall, her head had smacked against the bricks. Luckily, it had been less hard than it had felt and all that remained of it was now a scab, hidden under her hair. She vaguely remembered a nurse commenting on how surprised she had been that she hadn't fared any worse, that even a concussion had been avoided. Or something like that, Lee hadn't really paid attention to every single word those ladies had told her.

"Uh, what had it been? Something about falling over and hitting the ground, I think?" Dante offered with a small grin, feeling a little ashamed that he hadn't really listened to what James had told him. At least one of them was.

Before she could say anything more, he asked, "Why does it matter, anyway? He couldn't have known, right? What else should he have said?"

Another sharp look from Lee told him that that he, once again, was wrong. "It matters a lot. He couldn't have known what had happened, so he _had_ to make something up. But why, then, a sickle? How could he have known that my wound had such a shape? Had it really been that obvious?"

She suddenly remembered how nervous the Chief had been when he had entered her hospital room to tell her that he'd be taking her off the case. And then, in a flash, she thought back to Atlas's reaction once he had gotten close enough to recognise her face. He had almost backed down. And he had kept his eyes covered; had that been to cover up his human-like eyes? Lee quickly stopped herself from thinking any further, not actually wanting to conclude anything without proper evidence. But with all these connections practically staring her in the face, that might be a difficult thing to do.

"Hm, now that I think about it, he didn't even get to see the wound itself. I had been there all the time, from when they took you in till after they had patched you up, there was no way he could have seen it. Unless he... no, they wouldn't allow visitors if you had to take off your shirt for new bandages," Dante added, slowly catching onto her drift. "Do you really...?"

He didn't finish his sentence, but he didn't have to. Lee looked him dead in the eye, and despite realising she might be uncovering personal information about himself that he might not want to reveal, asked him, "Can demons take on the form of a human?"

Dante burst out in laughter, having felt the sudden uneasiness lingering in her voice. "No, I mean yes, I mean..."

"What's so funny?" she grumbled, crossing her arms and glaring at the man.

"Nothing," Dante managed between chuckles as his fit died down, "Just, you being _considerate_ of someone."

He went on laughing softly while Lee reprimanded herself for going soft on this bastard. "Fine! Are you in reality a hideous monster, though it might not be much of a setback compared to what your current appearance is. Couldn't you have chosen something more appealing?"

"Ouch!" He held his hand over his heart, all laughter suddenly gone. "I, for one, think this especially _fleshy_ body I have chosen has become quite a hit with the average human lady..."

A raised eyebrow from Lee made the mirth that could still be heard in his voice leave, too, and he coughed softly. "Okay, fine. This is my one and only appearance. Other demons can change their shape, though. Not all, but some."

"Thank you," she responded with a nod, rubbing her chin as her mind started racing.

Could it really be possible that her boss, her Chief, had been a demon in human form all this time? But then why had he only just recently started eating humans? Had the real Chief been killed by Atlas and then replaced by him?

"Damn, looking at you think makes my brain hurt. I guess I'll get going then, leave you to all that mental working out and do another round of the city," Dante announced as he got up.

Lee turned her mind off for a second to look up and say, "Yes, that would be great. Thanks." Immediately after, she went back to staring ahead of herself as various scenarios unfolded themselves inside her head.

Dante shook his head and shrugged his shoulders before leaving through the backdoor, muttering something like, "What have I gotten myself into?"

Half an hour later, Lee got up to find a book she needed, beelining towards her section for authors whose last name starting with an _R_. Her hand had already been lifted into the air, her body having remembered exactly where what book was and expecting to feel the designated cover... Only to grab air.

She checked if she was in the right place, just in case... And finding that she was indeed searching in the right spot, her eyebrows dipped down into an angry frown.

"DANTE, YOU PIECE OF SHIT!"


	9. Connections

**[A/N] Jeralee: **good to know, I strive to write things that are easily imagined and understandable! In my opinion, there's nothing worse than having to read the same sentence over and over again, trying to understand who's doing what. Their bantering is fun to write too! Though I believe that everything from Dante's side has been rather superficial until now, and Lee actually walked right into a trap that Dante had accidentally set up. Don't worry though, I have some plans for poor Dante! This is the last chapter to have been posted on Ghosts of the Vanguard as well, and so from now on I'll be updating weekly on Wednesday~

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A few more days passed by rather peacefully and Dante-freely, if one ignored the random panic attacks Lee got when she thought something might or might not be out of place. In those moments, she would force James to drop everything he happened to be doing to help her out and make sure everything was just as he had remembered it and that she had just moved something herself without knowing it. At least she never had a shortage of dressings and bandages, for she would order him to bring another pack with him whenever she called him over. This might sum up the happiness the poor boy felt when she was finally allowed to come back to work again.

The night before, however, made her own happiness at being allowed to return to work waver when, in its preparing for another workday, her body wouldn't allow her mind some much-needed rest. With her body itself being tired since her encounter with Atlas, she had slept like never before and had managed to forget about this little thing people called insomnia. However, now that she was able to walk up and down the stairs a few times without breaking a sweat again, her body no longer wanted to sleep and her ability to fall asleep like normal people could disappeared with her physical weariness. She had somehow forgotten what it felt like, lying in bed and just being incapable of closing her eyes and drifting off into a quiet sleep, turning this way and that, not sure whether she was too cold or too warm.

She despised the little bottle of sleeping pills she always kept in her nightstand and glowered at it as she fetched it out of its drawer. She had hoped that somehow, with her meeting devils and demons and all that, she might have somehow been cured of her ailment, but it seemed that she had no such luck.

In the palm of her hand she weighed a tab, and finding it not to be the exact right weight, put it back and repeated the procedure with a second, third, and eventually a fourth pill. Finally, the feeling of the fifth tablet felt satisfactory in her hand and she popped it into her mouth, hoping it would do its job sooner rather than later.

Forcing her mind to remain blank during the next few sleepless hours, she didn't really know when she drifted off and how well she slept, though when she woke up but a few hours later, she felt horrible.

Rolling out of bed, she cursed every fibre inside of her and then some. Her brain only began to function again once she had had breakfast and a cup of coffee, after which she got dressed for work.

Despite the terrible night, she stood just outside her door at the exact same time as every other day when she went to work. Of course after having checked a few times that all the lights and taps were off, the oven out, the backdoor locked and that she had her wallet, phone and keys with her.

Nobody looked up in surprise when she walked into the office at exactly nine o'clock, save for James, who just as always came running in at the last moment, knowing that she didn't tolerate latecomers. She didn't want to think about what time he had strolled in through those doors in the past few days during her absence. It was time to bring some order in this chaos once more.

"You've been gone for a few days and you still maintain that pattern of yours?" he panted, hands on his knees as sweat dripped down his face.

Today his condition was worse than usual. He had forgotten that today would be her first day back at work, then, and remembered at the last possible moment that she was to return today.

Lee shook her head at him and without saying a word walked farther into the building to make her way towards her office, the still-panting boy hot on her heels. Like she would lose her way of doing things in only a few days of absence. How foolish.

Once he had regained some of his breath, James began to ask her various questions about how she was feeling and such. Others who also worked at the police office asked much the same questions as he did and she happily ignored all of them as she continued to stride towards the door that first led to James's, and then to her room. Not forgetting to check her pockets just before entering, and then again for her own door, she let herself fall into her chair, swirling it around a few times as she relished the feeling of being back at work.

James, finally having won back his breath, stood in the doorway and smiled at the happy look on her face. He didn't even bother feeling confused when it came to her sudden mood swings, having gotten used to them a long time ago. He was just glad that she was back where she belonged.

"When you're ready, Chief told me to tell you that he has some paperwork for you," James informed her when she was done playing with her chair. "Doesn't want you up and running around doing other cases yet, or so he told me. Or we don't have anything right now."

Lee raised an eyebrow at him, her relief for being back in her workplace dwindling as she let her mind run over the information a few more times. Ugh, paperwork. The only bad thing that came with this job. She was here for the panic-induced marathons through the city, trying to find the culprit as fast as possible. She lived for the adrenaline coursing through her veins, loved the way her mind was constantly pressing itself to work faster and do more at the same time.

With a dejected sigh, her shoulder slumped down considerably as she hung her head. "Fine..."

James looked up from hanging his coat on the rack in his room, surprised at how quick she had given in.

"What, you're not going to complain?" he asked, just to be sure that he wasn't dreaming this up or anything.

She shrugged and swirled around one more time before answering, "It's not like I have any say in this matter. He'll probably try to threaten me again if I were to go against his wishes."

James nodded at that, seeing the logic in it.

"And anyway, I can't exactly steal a case or pick a new one up in secret. He's probably got the whole thing on lockdown, just for me. Besides, I still have some work to finish."

A groan left James's throat before he could stop himself, and now it was his turn to hang his head. "I had hoped that you might have forgotten all about it..."

Lee quirked an eyebrow at him and shook her head. "You actually believed I would forget something? That was case-related, too? Have you gone completely mad while I was gone?"

James grinned an innocent smile and closed the door before she could say any more, sitting at his own desk to finish some paperwork as well. His workdays had become quite boring, too, with the lack of a case and her absence.

"Have you had any contact with you-know-who?" she yelled through the door, not daring to use the proper name of who she was referring to.

"Yes. He said he'd be around, in case you needed him. And doing his own search, too, or something like that," the door replied and she nodded to herself again.

She swirled the chair around a few more times before opening a drawer. She frowned when she noticed that it was empty. The Chief had indeed said something about taking away all her notes for the next person to receive her case. The thought sent a shot through her stomach and she just couldn't bear to think any longer about it. That case had been hers and hers alone, and it felt so wrong that someone else would get to finish it in her stead.

Still, she wouldn't give up that easily.

Using her nails to lift what looked like the bottom of an empty drawer, a triumphant grin found its way to her face. The notes that she had hidden there, just in case, were still where they belonged. Her fingers itched to write down her new findings, especially the story that Dante had told her, so for now she left the notes where they were and pulled out a new sheet of paper.

If the Chief was going to take away her case, then he sure as Hell shouldn't expect that she was going to do what he told her, when he told her to do it. He bloody well could wait another few hours for her to fetch her paperwork from his office. She could do slow and steady if it was to annoy someone.

She thought that as the grin turned into a smirk and she began to write her new findings down, starting with the Legendary Dark Knight named Sparda, husband of Eva, father of Vergil and Dante.

* * *

With the way she took her time to jot down her notes - elaborating on every small detail lest she might forget what she meant while she was writing it down and making many detours of side stories that didn't actually have anything to do with the case but that she still wanted down on paper, just in case it might offer a solution later on - it indeed took her several hours before she stuffed the new stack of papers into the secret compartment of the drawer.

The smug smile still on her face, she got up and only just then she realised that she still had her coat on. A shiver ran down her spine at the thought while she frowned at the fabric encasing her clothes. She tried to push the need to correct this error away, but it didn't work, so with a sigh she got up and made her way to the door.

Doing her pocket ritual, she left the door and walked by a confused James, who asked what had happened but didn't receive a response. She did the same with his door, and repeated it when she left the building. Once outside, she counted to ten inside her head, turned around and made her way back inside.

James didn't even look up this time when she entered again, having guessed that something had gone wrong.

Inside her own office, she let out a sigh and pulled off her coat, hanging it over the back of her chair like she should. She nodded in satisfaction before making her way back out of the office. James merely waved at her without looking up, so she didn't return the gesture. Not that she would have if he had looked up, or anything.

And then she made her way towards the Chief's office, taking as much time as she could possibly take without tripping over her feet at her own slowness. Being kind to people was a living Hell to her; she could do it if she really, really, _really_ wanted it, though most likely if she needed something. Annoying the shit out of people, on the other hand, came to her like breathing did: she didn't have to think about what she was doing, it just happened when she wasn't paying attention. And when she did pay attention, it only became the sweeter and more annoying, depending on which side one was on.

When she raised her hand to known on Chief's door, she stilled her movement when she heard voices coming from inside. Normally, she wasn't one for eavesdropping, but she happened to make out that the people inside were discussing her very own case.

Something about a raccoon problem getting out of hand, but the words that came afterwards were what surprised her most.

"What will you have us do?" It was a voice that Lee couldn't recognise, but that didn't matter at the moment.

"You know what you have to do. Just make sure it stays a raccoon problem. The truth isn't supposed to be revealed, no matter the cost. Pin it on someone else if need be." That was most definitely the Chief's voice.

Lee sucked in some air, not sure whether she was supposed to feel shocked or confused at the news. Or whether she had gotten it all wrong and she was jumping to conclusions.

Whatever the case, the conversation inside halted for a few moments before they continued quieter than before. She shook her head to get her out of her stupor and let her knuckles fall against the wooden door in a weak attempt to knock.

"Ah, that must be my favourite detective, finally here to pick up her paperwork," the Chief announced, talking even louder than before. "We'll have to continue this conversation at a later point in time, understood?"

No response came and she could only hear footsteps coming towards her. In that moment, she remembered that she might have to wipe the weird look off her face and make sure she looked like she always did. Neutral. Or maybe bored? She couldn't quite remember.

She chose neutral just as the door opened, and she stepped aside to let two officers that she had never seen before leave. She eyed them, pretended it to be out of curiosity though she was filled with suspicion. After all, she had never seen these guys before, and she was pretty sure she could remember at least the face of every single person working in this building. Even the cleaning ladies.

The first one to leave had short blond hair, spiked with an obviously large amount of gel, making it almost seem shiny. He wasn't very large, only a bit taller than Lee was, but she saw that he certainly didn't lack in the muscles department. His pale blue eyes swept over her for a few seconds before he looked ahead of him and left without another word.

His companion had flat, black hair that barely reached his ears, where it curled a little outwards. He had dark, calculating eyes, and Lee almost shivered as his gaze met hers for a split second.

She always thought that she lacked emotions on the outside, but seeing the empty pits that were his eyes, she felt that she had just gotten competition in that department.

Still, she watched him follow his buddy, noting that he could easily be far taller than anybody she had ever met until then. She tried not to connect the tiny part of a conversation she had managed to catch and their physique. If the plan formulating itself inside her head actually held a kernel of truth, she could only imagine herself dying by the hands of those men. And she didn't believe that they did quick, painless deaths.

The Chief called her, pulling her out of her reverie as he waved her inside. "Come, I have a lot of paperwork for you to do."

Lee nodded and entered the office, not closing the door behind her. She didn't know why, but she felt like a seed of fear had been planted inside of her at the words she had heard. Leaving the door open seemed to give her a chance of escape if anything went wrong.

"I imagine James has already told you my plans for-" he stopped himself and tilted his head to the side. "Say, are you alright? You look a little pale?"

She wasn't sure if it was her mind playing tricks on her, but was that the corner of his mouth that twitched upwards in a smirk? She shook her head, trying to get the craziness of the whole situation out of her head when she realised she had just been asked a question.

"Eh, I mean, yes, I'm fine. Just, eh, getting used to working again. I guess." She almost kicked herself for the abomination that sentence had been. Here she had always prided herself in having a smart mouth and a quick brain to boot, but that might have been the worst thing she had ever said since learning how to speak.

The Chief quirked an eyebrow, probably thinking the same thing but he shrugged it off as he handed her her humongous stack of paper. She couldn't grimace at the amount of it, though, having been captivated by the way his eyes seemed to shimmer a strange shade of purple if she looked at them just right, or the way his hands felt scaly as they touched hers.

What on Earth was going on here?

Her heart pounded against her chest and she feared it might free itself through her skin, so she quickly nodded her head, turned on her heel and rushed out of the office to make her way towards her own.

Only when she was inside her own room, having passed an absentminded James again on her way through his, did Lee allow herself to calm herself down. Dropping the papers to the ground in front of her after having closed the door, she sank to the floor with her back against the wood of it and held her head in her hands.

What on Earth was going on here?


	10. The Things We've Seen

"So, let me get this straight," Dante began, eyes narrow as he ran Lee's theory through his mind a few times. "You want to tell me that that Chief guy of yours is actually Atlas in hiding because you managed to overhear bits and pieces of a conversation of his?"

"And he knew details he shouldn't have known about my attack. And those bits and pieces of that conversation had been about making sure that something stays a raccoon problem, and that the truth isn't supposed to be revealed," she retorted with a sigh. "Actually, the exact words were: "Just make sure it stays"-"

Dante waved his hand around in her face, interrupting her. She had to refrain herself from biting him, lest he might let it get to his head that he seemed to be the only person alive whose closeness she could tolerate, if only barely.

"I know what the exact words were. You've already told me, oh I dunno, thrice today. But what makes you so sure that they were talking about _your_ raccoon problem?" He stared at her, squinting his eyes even further. There was something else, and he knew it. And he knew what that was, too, but he just liked to put her on the spot.

And Lee knew that, but it couldn't be that hard to figure out, going by the amused twinkle that always seemed to shine in his eyes just when he had planned something horrible for her.

She let out a sigh, knowing she wouldn't get his full support if she didn't give him this guilty pleasure. "Because my instinct tells me this. I get goose bumps whenever I'm in his presence, something that only started since the whole Atlas ordeal... I guess his presence had never endangered me. But now it has and I can recognise it. Now go and have your laugh."

Crossing her arms and glaring at the white-haired bastard, who had started gloating at her even before she had told him he could do so, she realised how stupid this instinct bullshit was. Especially when it came from her, someone who hammered on about scientific evidence and whatnot all the time. James would be having an 'I told you so' party if he knew about this.

"_Anyway_." Lee coughed to get the Devil Hunter's attention once more. "I was thinking of how I could-"

Dante frowned at her sudden freezing, snapping his fingers in front of her eyes a few times when his calls didn't seem to reach her mind. "Don't tell me you're actually a machine and have to be wound up every so many hours to work again. Though... I have to be honest and say that it wouldn't really surprise me. And I'm insulted that you haven't told me earlier, I'd be glad to wind you up whenever you-"

The scowl she shot his way for once happened to be enough to silence him and he muttered under his breath, "Great, she has a restart button."

"He was grinning when I entered the room after hearing him say that. For what had appeared to be no reason. Ugh, why hadn't I thought of that sooner?!" she yelled, pinching herself as though to punish herself for her own dumbness.

"Woah, woah, hadn't thought of what sooner?" Dante caught her hands in his to prevent her from hurting herself again.

"Don't you get it? He was grinning because he was confident in his case. It doesn't matter if I find out whether or not he's Atlas. Nobody will believe me if I claim that our boss is some demon who can change into a human! They all think I'm crazy enough as is, they're practically waiting for something like this to happen and to put me in a mental institution!"

"Okay, calm down," Dante said, still holding Lee's hands but she hadn't seemed to notice. He shook her arms a little to try and bring her back to reality, concern filling his eyes. "All you have to do is find evidence, right? How about start with those two men you saw leaving his office?"

She shook her head. "No, that's exactly it. I don't have any evidence, and he's going to kill me before I get any, too. You were right all along, I shouldn't have gotten myself involved with these stupid raccoons."

"I have to agree with you on the fact that raccoons are horrible beasts, but believe me when I say you're not going to die. I won't let him, okay? And didn't you say something about raising suspicion if you were to die?" Dante retorted.

When he didn't get an immediate answer out of her, he shook her hands about again, which finally made her realise he was still holding them in the first place.

Tugging herself free from his grasp, she shook your head again. "There are many ways to kill someone while making it look like an accident. Haven't you ever watched television?"

"Hey, don't lecture me on watching television. And just don't get into situations where you can die in an accident," Dante suggested with a grin.

At that, Lee raised an eyebrow at him. "You mean to tell me to stay indoors all day and get James to do my grocery shopping and all? No, thank you very much."

"Or you could stay with me," Dante offered in a low voice, his grin turning his a smirk as he drew closer to her. His expression was unreadable and she could feel herself turn red at the amount of lust that he seemed to be secreting all of a sudden.

"Y-you mean to suggest that I live in that hole you call a home, or office, or whatever?" She almost slapped herself at stuttering.

Dante pouted and backed away from her, feigning a hurt look. "I, for one, think it gives it a very personal and cosy feeling."

"If you mean 'personal' and 'cosy' as in, 'Hey let's do it on this couch', then I guess you've hit the nail right on the head," Lee shot back at him, looking rather disgusted at the image that had appeared inside her mind. Of course it had to insert _herself_ and him on that dirty couch, giving her shivers of both the turned on and turned off kind. She hadn't known this guy for so long and already was he giving her such conflicted feelings.

"I liked it better when you were all blushing and stammering. Though while you're at it, you could use that sharp tongue of yours for-"

"No! Get out!" she all but screamed at him, pointing towards her backdoor.

"What crawled up your ass all of a sudden?" Dante retorted with a grin as he made his way out and Lee merely watched him go, knowing that whatever she wanted to say would only come back to bite her instead.

Once she had slammed the door closed, she rested her forehead against the wood to collect her thoughts for a few seconds. Immediately forgetting Dante's existence, her mind went back to the Chief, the hopelessness of it all washing over her.

She couldn't tell anybody about this because they'd think her crazy. Even if she did manage to somehow find evidence for her theory... It would remain hard for the average human being to comprehend the situation. People could be stupid like that.

But she couldn't just get up and find said evidence, which would still help her more than her silly claim could, for she had been taken off the job and that would raise suspicion. Even with a certain half-demon out there trying to help her, who knew how long it would take before Atlas killed her or she managed to catch him.

A knock from her front door startled her and she twirled around, her heart almost in her throat just as she repeated her last thought to herself. She grabbed her gun from its holster and held it behind her back before making her way to open the door.

Fearing to see the face of the Chief, intent on getting her out of his way, relief and irritation flooded her when she saw it was Dante, instead.

"What do you want now?" she asked him.

Her armed hand now hung by her side and Dante eyed her gun before directing his gaze back at her. "You expecting company?"

"No, I-"

Lee's snarky response was cut off as a pair of lips crashed to hers, her eyes going wide as she watched Dante watch her. He wrapped his arms around her waist, pulled her against him and started to probe at her shut mouth with his tongue, almost begging for entrance.

Torn between giving in to him and staying true to her mind, she stood there, frozen, not knowing what to do.

The situation resolved itself when, due to her inactivity, Dante gave up and pulled away. This had to count as a rejection for him, yet there was a smirk on his face when one of his fingers traced her lower lip, his expression unreadable.

"You know, just in case you're telling the truth and your Chief wants you dead. Wouldn't want you to die without having at least kissed someone, right?" And with a wink, he disappeared again, and this time she hoped he wouldn't start knocking at her backdoor in a few minutes.

Lee closed the door behind him, _again_. Having forgotten her predicament for a moment, she ran over his words a few more times, her mind incapable of pushing that look on his face away.

"I hate you, you idiot," she mumbled and touched her lips, where his had been but a few seconds ago.

She hated how her face had turned red, how she had frozen up and had been unable to push him away, or just to kiss him back while she had the chance. Hated how she - no, her body, she wouldn't acknowledge _he__rself_ enjoying such a barbaric activity - had seemed to enjoy the contact. Contact which she hadn't even thought that she would have, never thought she wanted to have, yet now she seemed to be yearning for more.

And somehow it hurt. Her first kiss, ever, and it had seemingly been given by this guy, the only guy ever who had managed or wanted to get this close to her, because he 'didn't want her to die without at least having kissed someone'.

But then again, he had said _at least_ kissed someone. Did that mean he was planning on going further?

Lee wasn't sure whether she was supposed to be happy or angry, so she just settled for pressing her free hand against her eyes in an attempt to hold back the sudden tears that were trying to escape.

Had she always felt this lonely?


	11. Reprise

**[A/N] Jeralee: **ehehe, what can I say! It wasn't planned, but Dante took matters in his own hand for that chapter, it seems. There'll be more soon! I just hope it will feel realistic from both sides. I fear that I won't be able to show Dante's growth in his feelings for Lee in a proper manner and that it'll just seem he loves her for the sake of the story... Let's hope that doesn't happen, though~!

* * *

A few fruitless days filled with nothing but horrid paperwork later, just before Lee could enter the office after having checked her pockets, James came rushing out through the front doors. Lee raised an eyebrow at how he was far too elated far too early in the morning, but he wouldn't wait for her to comment on it.

"C'mon Boss, Chief gave me a job for us to do and I thought you might appreciate it, with all the sitting inside you've been doing lately!" he exclaimed and gestured down the street with more energy than necessary.

When Lee's response was less enthusiastic than he had expected, his shoulders drooped down and he let out a long, sad sigh that made her fingers twitch in annoyance. He _knew_ she loathed it when he did that. She couldn't understand why he did it, though maybe the fact that it always seemed to work explained it... Well, bugger.

Lee gave him a smack up his head and with a scowl she grumbled, "Fine, fine, lead the way."

James's face brightened at her words and he grabbed the sleeve of her coat, ignoring her protests to let go in favour of dragging her down the street.

She had to admit, though, that she was actually quite grateful for his actions. He knew just as much as she did how she hated sitting inside with nothing but a pen in her hand. She wasn't meant to sit behind a desk, always too fidgety to stay still for longer than a few minutes if something didn't interest her enough. Why else had she become a detective in the first place? Why hadn't she ever bothered to check the other sides of the work as an officer of the law? Ah well, it was too late now anyway.

James led her through the city, always checking up on her wellbeing, though she had recovered most of what she had lost in the accident and could easily keep up with the young man.

"I'm glad to see you back on your feet as usual," he commented as he rounded another corner, in the direction of the city's centre. Lee wondered what the two of them could possibly have to do there.

"Yes, me too," Lee replied with a small smile.

She was just about to ask what the Chief had planned for the two of them when the sound of a lot of people bustling about reached her ears, together with bits and pieces of different kinds of music at the same time. She could also hear engines running and she paled at the sight before her.

"You've got to be kidding me, right?" There was no sign of her smile from a few seconds ago, all that was left was an expression of horror on her face.

Somehow, with all that had been going on lately, Lee had managed to forget that winter always brought that damned Christmas procession with it, every single year for as long as she could remember.

In front of her, the whole street was filled with people doing last-minute Christmas shopping, or just regular shopping, or eating food or drinking what was most likely Glühwein, or just enjoying the atmosphere with their friends and families. Huge, decorated Christmas... wagons or whatever were slowly driving around, people milling on and about them, throwing candy at the onlookers. Some interacted with the public by ushering them into dancing with them to the many Christmas songs that were being played through each other.

"Don't tell me Chief sent us here to make sure everything goes smoothly? Like any _ordinary_ police officer would have to do?" Lee moaned, her hands flying up to her head to cover her ears and eyes from the sight and noise.

If there was one thing she hated almost as much as being touched by people, it was _Christmas_, in which touching people was often included by being forced to shake their hands, and if not worse, to _hug_ them. The forcing a smile and trying to saying 'Merry Christmas and a happy New Year' in a way that it seemed like one meant it only added to her hatred. And no, it had nothing to do with the fact that each and every year, she got to spend this so-called time of 'family and happiness' all by herself.

"Please don't be mad at me," James begged. An innocent grin graced his face, and combined with those puppy eyes, the detective was torn between hating him and loving him. He knew her dislikes more than anybody else, having listened to her complaining more often than she could even remember, so it must have taken him a lot of inner debating to pull her out here.

"I just thought you'd like to get out for once."

Or maybe not.

Oh well, it was the thought that counted.

Lee let out a sigh and ran a hand through her hair. "Fine. What are our orders?"

James smiled, relief visible in his eyes. He turned away from his friend to face the crowd and stood on his tiptoes, using his hand to shield his eyes from any light. His gaze searched the street for what he sought... And he found it with a soft, "Aha!"

He pointed at something and Lee strained to see what he was gesturing at. Being shorter than he was, she failed miserably and had to let the boy lead her to their designated spot, wherever or whatever that might be.

It ended up being the market that started just down the street. Though it broadened out there, the addition of stalls still made for a rather cramped space, with all the people and the floats walking and driving about. James informed her that the Chief had told them to make sure nothing happened, for if chaos were to break out, that could have disastrous effects in such a packed street.

Lee groaned as she followed James on what he tried to call their first patrol. What was supposed to consist of watching over other citizens and making sure that everything went smoothly became looking after her own wallet and trying to not get squeezed to death by her surroundings. Throw in her general hatred of contact and one had a slightly distressed Lee, trying her best to keep _herself_ from falling into inner chaos.

James's hand encasing hers seemed to be the only thing keeping her connected to her sanity and she wondered since when she had gotten this close to the man. Or since when she had become able to tolerate his touch.

She imagined a tuff of white hair and grumbled at the memories it brought up. She was supposed to be angry with that bastard for what he had done, not thankful for all the good things he seemed to be doing for her. It didn't matter that he was checking the area for any signs of Atlas, seemingly selfless, for she was sure that someday he would come back for his payment... In whatever form suited him best. She shuddered at the thought of having to pay him with her body, but somehow she doubted that Dante was the kind of man to do that. She then began to chastise herself for her high thoughts of the half-demon, but instead opted to just concentrate on the task at hand.

Finally, James managed to find an opening in the crowd, only to realise that there was no way of maintaining order when the two of them couldn't see beyond the first layer of people surrounding them.

"We need to find some place higher," Lee offered him and began to look for place to do just that. She noted that she was starting to feel a little drained and was dismayed that her body remained so incapable, even days after her release.

James nodded in agreement and joined her in her search. Having that advantage of height, he soon spotted the perfect spot and tugged his partner along once more in the direction of one of the stalls. There, he had somehow managed to spot a stack of crates. He asked the owner of them for permission to use them, and after receiving it he started to pull some of the crates down so that Lee could climb on it.

"Is it stable enough?" he asked, only letting go of the pile when she gave him a slow nod, after which he set out to make his own crate-tower.

"Yes, this will work," she admitted with a curt nod, her eyes gliding over the bustle before her for any signs of disorder as she waited for James to join her in her height.

"Nice, two birds with one stone. We can look out _and_ have the best spots around at the same time!" he exclaimed happily, only to flail his arms around when his sudden bolt of energy sent his crates wobbling.

Lee rolled her eyes at his antics. "Don't you dare fall and break your neck. I am not going back to that hospital, even if it's to visit your stupid face."

Her partner stuck his tongue out at her once he had regained his balance. When he realised she wasn't going to react again, he looked back at the crowd. Having created a barrier between the two of them and the rest of the world, or so it seemed, he felt a strange silence hang in the air, despite being surrounded by festivities.

"Say..." he started, but stopped again, not sure how to ask what he wanted to know.

Lee hummed, signalling that she was listening to him and that he could continue. When he didn't, she averted her gaze from the celebrations to glance at James, who was staring at her in surprise.

"What?" she asked with a frown, to which he quickly shook his head.

"It's nothing... I just... You always hate it when I interrupt you when you're working."

"Ah," she breathed and then she shrugged, feeling that she knew what he wanted to ask her about. He was her disciple, after all, so it shouldn't be too hard for him to notice the things she noticed, too.

James shook his head to rid his mind of his own distracting thoughts and he started over. "I was just wondering how you and Dante were doing. You know, because you've changed, so I thought that maybe..."

His voice trailed off, allowing her to finish the sentence herself. The images it conjured made her cheeks turn a bright red. Even more embarrassing, it seemed to affect her body in places that had remained dormant until then.

She rubbed a hand over her face to hide her blush from her friend, who had already caught sight of it anyway. It made him flush, too, for he took it as a positive answer to his unasked question and he wasn't sure whether he should feel shocked or happy.

When Lee noticed his face through her fingers, she held up a hand to silence him before he could say anything else.

"No! It's not what you think! We haven't done anything. Well, anything like that..."

James caught himself sighing in relief, but then he eyed her suspiciously. "What do you mean with 'anything like that'? So you guys _have_ done something, haven't you?"

The other opened her mouth to respond, but froze as a familiar shiver ran down her spine, the hairs on the back of her neck standing up all of a sudden. When her mind comprehended the warning, her body relaxed and allowed her to investigate the crowd thoroughly to try and apprehend the reason for her distress.

"Boss? What's wrong?" James asked, having forgotten their previous conversation once he noticed the change in his friend's behaviour.

Just then, Lee caught sight of two heads, one blond and the other black, making their way through the crowd. Their eyes casually landed on her and moved away again as though they were just taking in their surroundings, but they couldn't fool her. The fact that she saw the Chief pushing his way through the group of people just behind them, in the direction of an alley, was a dead giveaway.

"James! Stay here!" she barked at the man as she jumped off her crate.

She almost stumbled to the ground as the stack wobbled and fell over at her sudden movements, but she caught herself at the last moment and began to force her way through the visitors as fast as she could.

"Boss! Boss!" James's confused voice followed her until all she could hear was the chatting and laughter of strangers surrounding her.

Another wave of panic threatened to wash her away, but she swallowed hard and squinted her eyes as she pressed on, yelling apologies and excuses all the while. She almost tripped again when she broke free, having reached the opening where floats still made their way through the streets.

Lee could no longer see the Chief, so the only way to determine her route was to follow the alley in which she believed him to have escaped. She had to avoid Blackie and Blondie at all costs, knowing that they would try to stop her from pursuing her boss.

After waiting for the current float to pass, she sprinted across the road in front of the next one, ignoring the protests from angry bystanders and performers as she interrupted them. She couldn't use her police badge as a way out, feeling that she had to have a valid reason for that, and her gut feeling did not count as a valid reason.

Before diving into the other side of people, she took a deep breath as though she were planning on literally diving into water, gasping for air whenever she managed to find an opening in the crowd.

Standing on her toes, she managed to spot Blackie towering above the masses, though she couldn't find Blondie. You hoped it was because he happened to be much shorter than his friend, making him invisible to her.

Lee didn't want the Chief to get away, so she quickly continued her journey to the other side of the street, colliding with more people as she went on. The reactions she received ranged from apologetic to irritated, but she ignored all of them as she kept going on.

Finally, she experienced that stumble again as she freed herself from the prison of bodies, relief washing over her when she realised that she had succeeded in reaching her destiny. She didn't give herself enough time to properly celebrate, instead looking around immediately to pinpoint her current position. It seemed that she had pushed her way through with a slight deviation, having ended a few metres to the right of the alley.

The sight in front of her, however, made her take a step back towards her personal hell.

Blondie stood in front of the alley, an eyebrow quirked as he stared right at her in a silent challenge.

Without taking her eyes off him, Lee evaluated her situation. Behind her, there was the crowd. To her left and right were more stalls and stray people having a look at the wares, or just keeping their distance. There was another alley just two stalls further, and she tried to judge the chances of her winning in a head-on confrontation.

Negative - she did not want to use her gun so close to citizens. She was here to maintain order, not to create chaos. And her hand-to-hand skills weren't exactly fit to use against someone who looked as capable as Blondie did.

Could she make it to the other alley, then? It could be possible. Blondie didn't know yet which course of action she was planning on taking, giving her at least a few seconds of reaction time in advance. By now, she had also already formulated the fastest path towards the alley, giving her another advantage.

Giving up wasn't an option for her, and so she dashed off to the right, but not before noting the surprised look on Blondie's previously smug face.

Astonished cries filled the air as she moved past people as fast as she could, sometimes pushing them out of the way if need be, hoping to create obstacles for Blondie as she did so.

She rounded the corner around a stall, gripping the edge of the table in order to not slip and lose her course. A look over her shoulder showed that Blondie still struggled with one of the bystanders who planned on making his pursuit difficult for him. She wasn't sure if he was doing so for answers as to what was going on, or if the stranger was on her side, but she was thankful nonetheless.

Before she knew it, Lee had entered the alley, the darkness engulfing her as the noise from the crowd behind her faded away as though she had just stepped through a barrier to another world. It wouldn't have surprised her if this had been some kind of trap and she actually _was _in a different world.

Without waiting for Blondie to catch up with her, she sprinted down the alley, not caring for stealth. If her theory was true and the Chief and Atlas were one and the same, she doubted she could remain undetected anyhow, so catching up with him in the first place had priority at the moment.

Her hand found her gun before she peeked around the corner, just in case. She pulled it free and released the safety as she checked the other side, and she wasn't sure whether she should be relieved or disappointed that the path was deserted.

However, she wouldn't give up that easily, and entered one of the three new paths that opened up on the other side of the wall. She kept her eyes and ears open as she stepped down the dark road so that she was prepared for whatever might come.

A scream filled the air farther ahead of her, goose bumps appearing all over her body as the pain of it penetrated her. Fuck being prepared, she was going to rush in now.

And so Lee began to run again, also realising that somebody - probably Blondie - was following her. Luckily the roads split up at various points, leaving her with enough opportunities to disappear from her stalker's sight while at the same time continuing onward.

By now, others sounds could be heard. Something, or someone, was thrashing around and squealing and she also caught what sounded like heavy breathing. That shiver ran down her body again and she wondered whether her body had been traumatised to such an extent that she could feel Atlas's presence whenever he was in the vicinity.

But if the Chief had ran in this direction and now she was sensing Atlas, then what could that possibly mean?

Turning one more corner, she halted, a shocked breath escaping her throat as she laid eyes upon the sight before her.


	12. For the Fire

**[A/N] Jeralee: **muaahahahaha! Gotta love cliffhangers when you're the writer of them. Hopefully this will make up for both the cliffhanger and the Dante-absense... As will the next chapter ;D /teasetease And thank you for your kind praises ^^

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Turning one more corner, Lee halted, a shocked breath escaping her throat as she laid eyes upon the sight before her.

Atlas's disgusting body was hovering over a young woman. She couldn't tell whether the woman was conscious or not, or even still alive, though that didn't make the frightful stare that she seemed to be directing towards the detective any better.

"You motherfucker..." Lee growled, and without waiting a moment longer, she raised her gun and shot at the monster, anger flowing through her.

The beast yowled in pain and turned to look at her, not having sensed her approach any earlier. The corners of its mouth turned down in a grimace and she bet that if it could, it would have frowned.

"It's you...!" it yelled and tried to change its angle to face her. Unfortunately for Atlas, its body happened to be a bit too big for this narrow alley, unable to turn around.

Lee noticed the blood dripping down its chin and scanned the unmoving body beneath it for any signs of bite marks. A pair of arms from behind her interrupted her as they wrapped themselves around her shoulders, a foreign smell infiltrating her nose as, from the corner of her eye, she noticed blond hair.

Cursing softly, she struggled to free herself, only for Blondie to tighten his hold on her, forcing her to stay still and, unfortunately for him, giving her the opportunity to calm down and rethink the situation. Realising that her hand with her gun had free range, the corners of her mouth twitched upwards and she wondered whether Blackie was both the brawl _and_ the brains of their team.

While Blondie was still none the wiser of her plan, Lee aimed her weapon slightly behind her and pulled the trigger. She winced as the recoil seemed worse than usual because her arm refused to move with the flow, with Blondie hugging her from behind.

The man yelled out in pain and released her as a bullet buried itself into his foot.

Lee ran off in the direction of one of the other paths that began in this alley, but not without throwing in a few more gunshots aimed towards Atlas, who had almost managed to turn around by now. Her finger kept pulling back the trigger until it gave a click, after which she flew into an opening.

More yelling and screaming came from behind her, but she didn't actively listen to it as she quickly reloaded her gun with some new ammo. She took in her surroundings as she did so, noting this road was just as narrow, if not more so, than the previous one. That would aid her in this stupid battle she had begun with the demon, knowing fully well she would never win like this. Especially not with Blondie thrown into the mix.

She rounded the corner at the end and took a few steps until another gap opened up, leading back into the direction from which she had just come from, the pathway that had been closest to Atlas. There, she stood and listened for a while, trying to gather what the others were up to.

That wasn't such a difficult task, with both of them shouting loudly at each other. Was Blondie a demon, too? Like Atlas? Why else would they have what seemed like such a comradery? That meant that Blackie, too, was one. If he were to join this fight, then it was sure to be a quick death for her.

Still, she wasn't planning on going down easily.

Atlas tried to quiet down, but it was impossible not to hear the sound of his sides scraping against the walls as it made its way towards her. Blondie, on the other hand, had the advantage here, and Lee knew that he wouldn't make the same mistake twice.

Raising her gun in the direction of the scraping, she pulled the trigger two more times. Without waiting to listen if she had hit her mark, she jumped up and jogged back to one of the other paths to try and discern Blondie's position. She was in luck, or so it seemed, and she heard soft muttering and cursing coming from this alley, and so she chose the third and final pathway to sneak back to where she had first seen Atlas, thankful for the lack of snow.

Once there, she kneeled down next to the unfamiliar woman, whose eyes were now closed. Two fingers pressed against her neck proved that she was still alive, and Lee also had the chance to check over the body for any wounds. A small puddle of blood lay under the stranger and quickly Lee found that the woman had lost half her arm.

Her stomach churned at the idea of it having been _eaten_ by Atlas, but what else was there to think? It was then that she also realised that having come back hadn't been such a good idea. She should have led the two of them away from this girl.

Sudden movement behind her proved that she was already too late, and before she knew it, pain erupted in her side and it was only then that she realised a gun had been shot behind her.

Pressing a hand against her side, Lee watched the blood flow from between her fingers and wondered whether the bullet was stuck in her, or had just barely grazed her; she couldn't think properly at the moment. Then she turned around to glare at the perpetrator, finding Blackie had caught up with his friends.

She growled and clenched her teeth together when she heard more commotion up ahead. It wouldn't take long until Atlas and Blondie made their way back to her.

So she grabbed her gun and fired behind her just as she got to her feet. When she was standing again, she pulled the trigger again, and once more before she disappeared into the alley which she had already established to be empty.

None of her bullets had hit the man, but at least it had given her the opening she needed to get away from there. She felt horrible for leaving the woman behind, but she thought that she was the only one who knew the truth about Atlas. If she was to die, only more people would die. And anyway, maybe they would be too busy catching her to feast upon the girl's body.

This time, Lee didn't allow herself the time for stealth. They knew which way she had gone, and the blood trail she was leaving behind would give her away anyway, so she opted for speed instead.

That didn't go too well, though, and at the end of the way she had to lean against a wall to regain her breath, her head swimming from the sudden blood loss. She pinched herself to stay focussed and pushed herself on, entering the final alley that would lead out of this maze, judging by the dim light she could see at the end.

Her feet were accompanied by the shaking of the floor as Atlas, who seemed to have recovered from most of its wounds, pursued her, Blackie and Blondie probably not far behind.

Once more in the open, she was surprised to see that the street was completely deserted, all the attention in the main street. She had only gotten farther away from the busy streets by using the alleys, after all.

Instead of making for the other side of the road to create some distance between herself and Atlas, she chose to hide behind the corner instead. The other side of the street was filled with buildings, there were no gaps through which she could escape, and the only other ways to get away were to just run through the streets. That didn't seem like such a great idea with a huge demon following her.

It didn't take long for the tremors in the floor to reach her position. Lee closed her eyes, saying some last words and all that crap as she believed that this might well be her final moment alive.

She held her gun so that she was aiming at the entrance of the darkness, her finger on the trigger and ready to pull at the first sight of Atlas's horrible head.

One of its paws became visible and landed just before her, a jolt running through her body as it slammed onto the ground. She couldn't hear anything else and guessed that Blackie and Blondie had been given the order to back down and leave her to Atlas itself.

Its head finally left the dark alley. First its nose, then its grinning mouth with its deadly teeth. Just before she could see the cloth over its eyes, and so just before it could see her, she fired her gun at it in fast succession, emptying it in one go.

Atlas yelled again and thrashed around, its tail hitting the sides of the wall in its throes of pain. It shook its head about and Lee jumped back just in time to dodge a paw it swatted in her direction. She had learned from her previous encounter, but mainly she had just blinded his eye with a bullet.

Using that to her advantage, she once more created a distance between the two of them while she reloaded her gun at the same time. She was running out of ammo and hadn't inflicted any lethal damage - she was going to have to make every shot count from now on.

But then again, how was she supposed to do that when she did not even know its weak points? It looked as though it didn't _have_ any in the first place, and she didn't have enough bullets to experiment.

"Will you stop shooting at me!" Atlas barked at her and freed itself from the narrow path it had almost gotten stuck in.

The sight of its tail gave her hope. Trails of its own blood were joining in with what she now presumed to be poison, dripping to the floor as one. So it wasn't invulnerable after all.

"Only when you stop killing innocent people and eating them," she replied, frustrated at the predicament she had gotten herself in once more.

By now, she was standing at the other side of the road, having decided to go down that route anyway. She didn't want any people straying from the parade to have to meet Atlas, which would most likely end in their deaths, and so she didn't really have any other options. All her hope rested on her final clip of ammo.

"You know, you're very stubborn for a human," Atlas commented and tilted its head to the side. Its covered eyes held her back from reading its emotions, leaving her hanging in the dark a little about how it meant its statement.

"Really? I always thought that stubbornness was some kind of normal human trait that everyone has," she replied anyway.

Atlas shook its head from side to side. It didn't look like a 'no' and so she interpreted it as a shrug as it continued, "Maybe. But a normal human trait is also that they die when you want them to. You, you keep escaping..."

Lee scoffed at that. "You say that as though we have had many more encounters than just these two."

"Well, if you're used to your prey dying before encountering you even once, meeting someone for the second time is a rather special occasion," it shot back, growing slightly frustrated at the thought of having to meet this woman a third time.

"Whatever," said woman then answered, deciding that this confrontation had been going on for too long.

She raised her gun one final time, and Atlas even had the nerve to tilt its head to the side again, almost waiting for her to do her thing. It wouldn't have been any worse had Atlas started laughing at her and broadened itself to make it easier to hit it.

In her fury, she first aimed for its other eye, effectively taking that out as well. Atlas yelled, but otherwise remained still. This was obviously a challenge, and she knew she was going to lose it.

Another gunshot rang out. A bullet buried itself in its chest, which was quickly followed by one more exactly next to it.

And so Lee carried on, frustrated by the lack of defeat Atlas showed her. Sweat dripped down her temple at the combination of tiredness, pain and ire burning inside of her. Where was the justice in this? Weren't the good guys supposed to prevail? Then why was she obviously on the losing side right now?

"Are you done yet?" Atlas chuckled when her weapon stopped firing shots, the last round having been fired.

It didn't wait for an answer from her, instead going in straight for the kill. The blood loss made her brain function slower than it should, and in an almost sluggish manner she looked left and right, trying to find a way to get out. Trying to escape wouldn't work, her feet refusing to move in fear of collapsing if she did so.

So she did all her mind could conjure in that moment. She bent down and then straightened her back again, revealing a knife she always kept in her boot. With knife she meant a switchblade, and as she unfolded it and held it out in front of her in a defensive manner, she was thankful for the fact that Atlas couldn't see the uncertain doom to which it was rushing.

When it got close enough, she would stick her hand into its mouth and try to stab it somewhere inside.

That had been her original plan, at least.

But suddenly, red blocked Lee's vision, and she took that cursed step backwards in surprise. Her knee buckled and she crashed to the ground, shaking all over now that her concentration had been broken.

"You really are more trouble than you're worth, do you know that?" the voice which she had come to loathe yet long for in such a short period of time spoke.

Her heart clenched painfully at his words, and she wasn't sure if she was happy because he had gone through all that trouble to save her again, or if she was devastated at how he seemed to consider her unworthy of his energy. Maybe she should just be grateful that she was once more going to be saved, but she really couldn't stop despising herself because she kept needed to be saved.

"Then why don't you just leave me be?" she whispered, not expecting Dante to hear her words.

He did hear them, though he didn't react as Atlas clashed against his sword. The demon began to curse at the devil hunter for arriving so suddenly and taking its meal from it, again.

"Stop meddling with my affairs, you bastard!" Atlas spat and jumped back a few paces, brandishing its wounded tail as it did so.

"Yeah, you'd like that, wouldn't you? I'm a man, I understand the need to eat in peace, but maybe you should search something more of your own size," Dante retorted before holding his hand before his mouth in a fake gasp. "Oh, don't tell me, all of those are far too powerful for you to fight?"

Atlas chuckled at Dante's taunts and shook its head, but didn't reply.

When it didn't move, instead waiting for Dante to make the next move, the half-demon sighed and replaced his sword on his back before pulling out two guns from their holsters in a far too showy fashion.

"Have it your way," he said and began to shoot at the demon without giving it a chance to react.

Atlas grunted and tried to get out of the way, but wherever it went, Dante repositioned himself and the bullets followed it.

When it seemed that it had had enough, it lifted its head and opened its mouth in what looked like a silent cry. No sound came and Dante looked around in confusion, wondering what the meaning of Atlas's move had been.

That became obvious quite soon when he shifted his two guns from aiming only at Atlas, to aiming at both Atlas and a movement somewhere to his side.

Lee saw Blondie appear, the wound in his foot already gone, which was why the man now managed to dodge all the shots with ease. And after all, Dante had to concentrate on two moving targets at the same time while making sure nothing happened to her, still sitting on the ground behind him.

"Do you... do you have any ammo on you that I can use?" she mumbled once she started feeling guilty for causing such trouble for the man trying to protect her.

"Check my pocket," was all he said as he turned his body slightly so that one of his pockets was turned to her.

Having lost too much blood to blush, Lee reached in and pulled out whatever she could find, letting out a sigh of relief when she realised that, somehow, it was exactly what she needed.

"Why..." she wanted to ask, but Dante shushed her before she could finish her question.

She shrugged and reloaded her gun. Then she looked up and wondered which enemy she should target, with Blondie being too fast for Dante's rain of bullets but Atlas seeming too menacing to just let him be. As though sensing her dilemma, Dante now turned to the other side, indicating for her to reach into that pocket as well.

"What...?" she began, but she stopped herself when she felt her hand touch the familiar and cool metal of a gun.

With a frown she pulled out a brand new weapon from his pocket, and without wondering why or how Dante could run around town while being so packed, she checked the ammo and was happy to find it full.

"You do know how to dual wield, right?" Dante asked, his frown visible in his voice.

At that, Lee let out a laugh as she lifted both guns at the same time, trying to get the feel of the new arrival while ignoring the tremble of her arms. "Who do you think I am?"

And with that, as though some silent pact had been made between the two of them, Dante shifted his aim from Blondie back to Atlas. At the exact same time, she began to fire both weapons at Blondie, who had a harder time dodging two sprays of bullets and was forced to keep his distance after all.

Atlas noticed the added disadvantage they had gotten by the adding of two guns and it let out a yowl, calling the retreat. Blondie disappeared with a few bounds, while Atlas ran down the street to find itself a place to regenerate and turn into human shape.

"Next time will be the last!" it yelled before vanishing around a corner.

"I sure hope so! I couldn't stand to see your ugly face any more!" Dante called after it, but the lack of response indicated that Atlas could no longer hear them. Or chose to ignore the insult.

A sigh from Lee as she dropped the guns to the ground to lean forward reminded him of her presence, and soon he kneeled down next to her.

"You're wounded," he stated, which got him a sore look from his friend.

"Thank you for informing me of this, Captain Obvious. I had not yet noticed it," she shot back at him as she pressed a hand against her side with a wince. She had managed to ignore it with the threat of the demon hovering above her, but now that Atlas was gone, the weight of it all came crashing down on her.

"Excuse me, I was a little busy trying to keep you alive," he offered with an apologetic smile. "Plus, you managed to handle yourself so well, I hadn't thought to check up on you."

She shook her head, dismissing the subject. "Not important right now. We need to get back to..."

Dante interrupted her by holding up a hand before he handed her her guns and picked her up with ease.

"Wha-!" she began to exclaim, but the half-demon cut her off once more.

"James is on it, don't worry. I'm taking you back to my place, it's closer than your house. Just try to keep pressure on it while we're on our way," he then helpfully informed her before trotting off, not waiting to listen to her protests.


	13. Past Futures

**[A/N]: **sorry for the absence last week! Uni had started again and I had to adjust to getting up before 12 o'clock, hahaha... And next to that, Sims 4 came out last week and I started watching the anime of Blue Exorcist, so I was kinda juggling with everything and failed to update, sorry~!

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Lee kept pressing her hands against her wound. She had been lucky, for the bleeding seemed to have stopped for the most part and she had been even luckier that she had only been grazed by the bullet. Her eyes were directed up at the grey sky, for once unaware of her surroundings as Dante carried on.

That was the effect his mere presence could have on her; she felt safe enough to let her guard down now that she was in his arms. After all, she probably knew better than anyone out there what this man was capable of, and she trusted him capable enough to keep an eye on the situation around her for a while. Though if anyone were to ask, she would just blame it on the sudden blood loss.

Somewhere along the way, the clouds high above let loose a torrent of snow, no longer even bothering with the usual gradual build-up and instead just dumping all of it had in one go. Lee's head hung over the edge of Dante's arm, causing her to see everything upside down, cold flakes attacking her eyes every now and then.

"How did you know where I was?" she asked all of a sudden, her voice raspy from disuse but she didn't feel like clearing her throat.

Dante spared her a quick glance before looking in front of him again, needing his concentration to not slip on the fresh layer of snow that covered the ground and continued to grow as he went on. "The noises that demon made because of you were pretty hard to ignore if one wasn't busy attending that nonsense in the main street. Though I've got to say, you did a pretty good job."

"Don't tell me that you of all people hate Christmas, too?" she inquired in surprise. She had planned on ignoring his last comment, still being angry with herself that she hadn't been able to handle _all_ of it on her own, but she couldn't help herself. "Is it even possible to take care of those things without being at least a half demon?"

He nodded, his white hair moving in front of his eyes as he did so, making his face almost unreadable. "Of course it is. I even have a friend who can take care of herself and who is probably a hundred percent human. I think."

Then he shrugged and lifted Lee's upper body a little, her face becoming squashed against his shoulder as he scratched his cheek before adding, "And well, with my job, or whatever you wanna call it, Christmas is rarely the happy family time that it's made out to be. Why does that surprise you?"

"J-just…" She quickly looked back at the sky when he tilted his head so that he could see her again. "I thought you were the type to enjoy Christmas. Go out, have fun with friends, that kind of thing?"

The half-demon let out a bark of laughter at that, the image too strange for him to comprehend. "I doubt you can call what I usually do 'having fun with friends'."

Lee scowled at him, disgust filling her as she saw him sitting in a dirty strip club, half-naked - if not completely naked - women dancing in manners that men for some reason found attractive.

Dante laughed at the face she made and she could feel the deep rumble in his chest as he held her close. The sudden movement pinned her attention to the area and she could feel his heart beating against her arm, her mind only now realising the closeness the two of them were sharing.

Silence hung in the air and Lee was left with her thoughts once more. Why, _why_ could she accept and tolerate this touch, even though he was probably the most dangerous person she knew? He could fight Atlas without breaking a sweat, could jump insanely high and she was sure he could move much faster than any normal human. Only now was she beginning to understand the extent of his demon side and she knew that if he wanted, he could snap her body in half with the flick of a finger.

And still she continued to be pulled in by him, the least logical person she was supposed to be attracted to.

No longer wanting to continue this train of thought, her mouth blurted out, "Let's spend this Christmas together, then."

"Huh?" was the intelligent sound Dante made as he looked down at her, visibly surprised. "Did you just say what I think you said?"

"I didn't say anything. You're starting to hear things."

His lips turned into a smirk. "Don't worry, your secret's safe with me."

"W-what secret?" Lee stammered in surprise.

"That you have _feelings_," he responded and he wiggled with his eyebrows, which made her burst into laughter.

Dante looked taken aback at her outburst, which only added to her mirth. Once she had started she could no longer stop herself. She kept on laughing until she was gasping for air and clutching her sides, begging to stop because the pain it caused in her wound almost made her cry.

Now it was Dante's turn to laugh and Lee glowered at him just as he began to walk up the steps to his shop. Completely forgetting the predicament she had found herself in a few seconds ago, she was surprised by how sudden their arrival at his shop was. Only then did she begin to ask herself why he hadn't just dropped her off at the hospital again.

A groan left her throat as the two of them entered the main room when she remembered the horrible interior.

"Hey, at least it looks _natural_," Dante retorted as he dropped her on his couch, where she tried to make herself as small as possible so as to minimise the surface of contact between her and the material. "And there's nothing wrong with my sofa!"

Lee ignored him and continued to lay in a scrunched up ball, making a point of ignoring the pain coming from her side. Punishment for being such a weak bastard, that's how she regarded it and so she wasn't planning on relieving her body any time soon.

Dante, however, had other plans as his hands took hold of her head and her knees, and he pushed her down so that she was lying flat on her back. When she tried to reposition herself, he sent her a playful glare and disappeared from her view. She could hear him rummage through things from behind the sofa while she stared at the ceiling, following the cracks between the wooden planks with her eyes as she waited for him to return.

"Take off your shirt. Or roll it up, or whatever," came the command from the other side of the room and she did as he asked of her.

Lifting her upper body from the couch with one arm, she pulled her coat off with the other and shoved it onto the ground before dumping her shirt with it, leaving her in only her bra. The cool air pricked against her skin, and most notably against the gash in her side, causing her to suck in a gasp of breath.

It didn't take much longer before Dante was kneeling down next to the settee, a first aid kit on the ground beside him, from which he pulled several things he'd be needing. Lee saw he had also grabbed a bottle of alcohol, and she let out another groan, already feeling it burn against her wound.

"You're the one always getting in trouble. You should expect these kinds of things when you go out there to fight in the name of justice," Dante shot at her, raising an eyebrow at her childish reaction as he began to clean her wound with care, moving slowly.

"Oh, don't worry, this isn't the first time I've been shot. I've still got a few new bullets inside of me, too. But normally I fight against... well, humans. I think." She let out a sigh as she inspected her hands, clenching and unclenching them several times. "Can I learn? To kill demons, I mean?"

"The guns I use are... well, special, so they work better than normal guns. I could make yours..." He trailed off, shook his head and added, "And the friend I mentioned, Lady, she uses a rocket launcher with a bayonet. Real powerful shit. Fired it at me once, too."

"You can make my guns what?" she asked him, ignoring what he had said after that. Why was he being vague all of a sudden? His attempt to distract her with humour, the uneasiness that had crept in his way of moving, the way he didn't look her in the eye as he unscrewed the bottle of alcohol... Something was wrong.

"Never mind," Dante replied in a sour tone just as he dabbed a piece of cotton he had drenched in alcohol around her wound.

In a combination of surprise and pain, Lee let out a yell. Throwing her head back and clenching her teeth together, her hand shot out and found purchase on his leg. She squeezed the muscles there to the point of her digits hurting, too, but at least it was something she could concentrate on.

When he was almost finished with his dabbing, she slapped his hand away, setting the cotton ball he had been holding soaring through the air. He gave her a look of surprise, which only became even more surprised as she rocked herself back a little before launching her leg at him. He managed to throw his arms up just in time to catch it, but it seemed he hadn't expected much power from her weakened state and so she pushed him over. She followed her leg and pushed herself off the couch and onto Dante, which resulted in him lying on his back on the floor and her sitting on top of him, straddling his torso and ignoring the pain in her side.

Dante looked up at her with a frown, his blue eyes showing her his annoyance. "You do know I could have snapped your leg if I hadn't been careful?"

With her mind having been cleared from all the adrenaline and whatnot from the fight, that was all Lee had needed and the pieces of the puzzle fell into place. It also meant that she was going to have to admit a failure on her part.

"...I was wrong about you," she stated and watched as the anger in his eyes melted away and was replaced by confusion.

"How so?" he murmured, proving a sudden change in his behaviour towards her. Even she herself could think of a dozen dirty jokes to answer her statement with the position the two of them were in.

She hadn't pushed him over because he hadn't expected the force she could put behind her kick. He had just held himself back so immensely that he hadn't been able to provide any resistance against her moves.

His hands, that had settled themselves on her legs, shook her a little to encourage her to elaborate.

Examining his reactions, Lee obliged, "At first I had thought that you were quite comfortable with yourself, to which conclusion I had come when you casually confessed that you weren't completely human..."

His expression went from confused to unreadable within seconds of her utterance. Trying to hide himself from her, she guessed. It pained her to see him like this. Surprised, even, to witness a moment of his so vulnerable as this... Or surprised about her own reactions to his?

She leaned forward a little before continuing, "But now I see it. You're not comfortable with what you are at all... On the contrary, you _hate_ yourself. You're afraid of your own capabilities, afraid that you've just been lucky until now and that someday, something might happen and you could hurt, maybe even kill one of your loved ones. You want to be a normal human being, like the rest of us boring humans. Yet at the same time, you enjoy fighting and can't seem to get enough of it."

Dante had watched her throughout her analysis, not opening his mouth to interrupt her once. She still couldn't judge what his thoughts might be and so she wasn't sure whether she was actually right. Surprised, she noted that she had _never_ doubted herself when it came to deducing before.

"You confu-"

She had wanted to confess her feelings to him, but Dante felt that now she had spoken too much.

His hand had found its way to the back of her head before she had realised what was going on, and so he crashed her lips against his own while her mind was still stuck halfway her sentence. Her mouth was, too, and the devil hunter took the opportunity to slip his tongue past her defences.

For the first time in her life, her mind went blank as her body took control of the situation, all the while ignoring the stinging of her wound.

And so she kissed him back.

Surprised by her silent token of acceptance, Dante leaned up a little, his arms moving behind him to prop himself on his elbows. Lee ran her hands through his hair as he did so and, despite not knowing what she was supposed to do, pressed her chest against his for more contact.

He growled lowly, one of his arms encircling her waist with care to pull her even closer. All the while, his tongue kept dancing with hers. Occasionally, he nipped at her, teeth grazing her lips.

When all of a sudden, in the heat of the moment, a soft moan left her throat, she froze on the spot. The sound of it managed to penetrate the walls her body had put up around her self, keeping her from the control panels of her own limbs. Her eyes snapped open to stare at the man lying beneath her, who had noticed the change in behaviour and had pulled back to watch her, to investigate the feelings she held inside.

It had seemed that he had put up a wall of his own as well, holding her back and stopping her from reading him. The feeling of having been locked out saddened her for some reason. She frowned in frustration and let out a sigh as she ran a finger down his chest, absentminded.

"Why do you do this?" she murmured, her eyes not leaving her wandering digit.

"Do what?" Dante inquired in an equally soft tone.

Realising that the moment was over for good, he lifted her back onto her previous spot on the couch before resuming his taking care of her. With the wound having been disinfected, all he had to do was cover it. As if she hadn't seen enough dressings lately.

As he did so, she made a vague gesture with her hands, trying to refer to the two of them with a single movement. "This. Everything."

The man before her let out a chuckle, but she could tell that it was a defensive manoeuvre to buy him some more time while he tried to find a way to talk himself out of this.

"You're going to have to be a bit more specific than that, sweetheart." Or maybe he just really didn't know what she meant.

Lee let the term of endearment pass by her, knowing that by now, he only used them to taunt her. If she didn't react to them for long enough, maybe he would drop them all by himself. Instead, she tried to think of a way to explain what she meant with 'everything'.

After a few moments of silence, she let out an angered growl; annoyed with herself for not being able to sum her thoughts up in a simple sentence. "You're... you're so confusing. You taunt me, do things like... like kiss me all of a sudden, though you probably don't mean anything by it. And it's _working_, somehow. I..."

She trailed off, not even wanting to go down the path of confessing these new and disturbing feelings inside of her. Dante let her talk, didn't even ask for her to elaborate. He sat by her side, taking his sweet time in patching her up as he waited for her to continue.

"You even managed to put me on a false path, too. Making me, no, making us all believe that you have no trouble in the world. That you're confident in everything about you, that others can shove their opinions up their asses... But you're not."

Now, the white-haired man opened his mouth to protest, but she pressed a finger to his lips. "Don't lie to me. You can no longer lie to me, understood? But... why? What is it that you fear? Yourself? Us pathetic humans? And even then... why me? Why do you constantly follow me around, of all the people you could choose from?"

A smile appeared on Dante's face just as he finished his job. She noticed it in the split second before he turned away from her and sat on the ground before her, back facing her.

"You're asking me all these questions, but can't I say the exact same to you? You hate Christmas and I presume it's because you're lonely. I don't just follow you around, you _enjoy_ it as well. Yet with an attitude like that, one would think you hate people more than anything. But here you are, getting all cosy with some weird geezer you've met but a few weeks ago, who's as much of an outcast as you are."

Lee's mouth fell open at his analysis and she wasn't sure whether she was supposed to feel violated or surprised at the amount of information he had managed to gather by watching her. He shot her a look over his shoulder, reached out with his arm and closed her mouth for her before grinning.

"I can do a bit of 'detectiveing', too, if I want to. And even though you act all cool and sexy and confident, the fact that you're thinking that you're not good enough for my attention proves the opposite. Do you really want to know why I 'chose' you?"

As he spoke, he turned the rest of his body around as well. He crawled closer to her and planted his hands next to her sides on the sofa. Then, she watched him continue moving towards her and she went along with him until her back was pressed against a dirty cushion and his nose almost touched hers.

"Because you're different, just like me. You didn't scream and run when I told you of my... ancestry, you didn't break down at the sight of the Atlas. No, you actually decided to _fight_ it, which, in my opinion, is totally insane, but nobody's perfect. You think you're so cold and distant from the rest of us, but deep down you're yearning for someone to come and sweep you off your feet..."

Somewhere along the line, Lee started to wonder why her questioning him had turned into him analysing her mind, summarising her life in a few simple words. The feelings that had been new and disturbing moments ago had received their proper names, and she realised what she had to do.

"You're right. All this began as just something that wasn't really all that important to me, just helping people in need as always..."

She had to stop this, whatever _this_ was, before it got out of control. It wasn't love yet, but love always ended in heartbreak. Her parents rejecting the love she had offered them had broken her heart. The death of her grandfather, the only person who had accepted her love, had broken her heart. This man would surely break her heart as well.

"But now-"

"BOSS!"

The door to Devil May Cry flew open, and in crashed James, breathing heavily. He had probably ran all the way through the city to find this place from the hospital, or wherever he had gone with Atlas's survived victim.

The poor boy stopped in his tracks when he saw the scene before him: Lee, half-naked, pressed against the back of the couch while Dante almost sat on top of her, though still fully clothed. He reacted accordingly, his face turning bright red as he faced the other way and held a hand over his eyes.

"S-s-s-sorry for interrupting!" he squeaked.

Avoiding eye contact with the devil hunter, Lee pushed him off herself and quickly fetched her shirt again.

"Sorry for that, James. Dante was just helping me with my wound," she replied as she pulled her clothes back on.

"Wound? You were hurt?" James asked and came closer to make sure she was doing okay.

"It's fine. Got grazed by a bullet." To prove her point, she lifted her shirt just enough for him to see the small patch covering her side.

"Ah, okay," was all that James said to that.

A silence filled the air afterwards, with James exchanging looks between Lee and Dante, back at her, back at Dante... Until she let out a sigh and grabbed her coat and her gun that had been placed on his desk.

"Take the other one too," Dante spoke up as he pointed towards the one he had offered her in the previous fight.

Lee stared at him for a few moments before shrugging and grabbing the other one too. "All right, let's go then."

Dante saw the dent the doorknob had put into the wall from James's throw once she closed it behind the two of them. He sighed and ran a hand over his face, letting himself sink onto the couch, cursing at himself all the while.


	14. My Sunset

**[A/N] Jeralee: **damn, that you check the site to read my story really honours me! I hope I can keep up the good work and that you'll continue to enjoy the story. I'm glad that you thought the last chapter was well-developed, I'm always worried about whether I'm going to fast or whether the things that are happening seem illogical or something. Don't worry about Christmas, I'll have something for that! ;D Though I think I should hurry up because it looks like I've made up a new starting point for winter, since it's been winter from the beginning of this story and we still haven't gotten to the 24th of December. ...whoops!

* * *

That night was spent with just as little sleep as usual. Lee ran her mind over the conversation she had with James on her way home, how he had told her that she had probably saved that girl's life and that she was doing fine, or at least as fine as she could be doing after having had her arm... well, eaten. James had told Lee that, once awake, she had gone into shock, but he had managed to calm her down. Apparently she had asked him to stay with her for a while, which is why it had taken him so long to get to Dante's place.

James had told the detective that the girl's name was Zoe. Somehow she had felt touched by the fact that she finally had gotten the name of one of Atlas's victims. She had vowed that this was only the first, and that she wouldn't let another unnamed one pass her by.

Her partner had then proceeded to talk about everything and nothing. It was rather obvious that he did not want to touch the subject of what she and Dante had been doing before he interrupted the two of them. And even then, the thought of that stupid, white-haired, arrogant, confusing... bastard kept invading her mind, her attention drifting elsewhere multiple times during her conversation.

Lee's attention _never_ drifted elsewhere when she was talking about a case. What had happened to her?

And so here she lay, pressing her hands against her head in a feeble attempt to rid her mind of the images that barged in without knocking first. In between her fits of despair came even worse thoughts, thoughts of what the Chief was going to do or say to her the next morning.

After all, she had disobeyed a direct order, and probably even in his very own presence. But even now, there was no way for her to prove her claims. She had seen the Chief disappear into an alley during the busy Christmas fair, only to meet a demon? She could already hear her colleagues laughing, believing her to be delirious.

With every passing minute, her worry grew until all she could see was Dante's face and a mix of those of her Chief and Atlas, whether she closed her eyes or opened them. This had to stop!

She would cut all ties with the half-demon. It was for the best, or so she believed. She wasn't cut out to have a relationship, and though Dante might not think so himself, he deserved something better than her.

And Atlas - or Chief - would never go away, even with evidence. Nobody was going to believe her. She was going to have to take matters into own hands and kill him, or it, with her own hands.

Thus came the end of the night, and though she had planned every single step she was to take in the next few weeks, she hadn't gotten any sleep in return.

* * *

"You what?"

"You _what_?"

Lee stared at the Chief for a while, who was sitting at his desk and staring at her in disbelief. Then she slowly turned her gaze towards James, who stood beside her and was gaping at her as well, before she repeated herself.

"I quit. It's easy really, if you listen for once."

A hurt look crossed her partner's - or should she say ex-partner? - face while the Chief turned red in anger.

She was standing in his office because he had called Lee to meet him. She knew exactly what he had planned on doing; he had probably wanted to yell at her that she had gone against his own words, punish her, fire her, something like that... But she had decided to take matters into her own hands.

This wasn't just simply about the case. It wasn't even 'just' her case any longer. It was a case that nobody should be supposed to handle and she knew that she was the only one around who could see it to the end in a proper manner, in a way that she could be sure that justice had been served. Atlas's henchmen be damned.

The fact that James shook his head and strode out of the room without sparing her a glance didn't matter to her, at least not in that moment. Indirectly, she was doing it for him, too. He was a good boy, still had a real chance at a proper life in this world. She wouldn't want to see it all come to an end because of her incompetence.

Chief ground his teeth together as he glared at her, hands clenched into tight fists and he held himself back from spitting whatever obscenities lay on the tip of his tongue. Not that they would ever reach Lee, even if he loosed them at her.

"Will that be all?" she inquired, taking on an almost polite tone as though she had just concluded a business meeting and wished to move on from the topic.

Her boss sucked in a deep breath and made a movement with his hand that was supposed to shoo her away. Gladly accepting the permission to leave - not that she would have let him stop her or anything - she turned and left without another word.

When she coincidentally bumped into Blondie and Blackie after exiting the room, she couldn't help but feel a little anxious to leave this building and prepare herself for her oncoming mission. Without a doubt, Chief-no, _Atlas_, would send them after her as soon as possible, knowing that whatever danger she had been to him before would only grow with the freedom of him not breathing down her neck as his boss. He had presumed that her loyalty to her job and partner would have been enough to keep her here, but apparently he had misjudged her.

When Lee passed the door to James's office on her way to the front door, she couldn't help but pause. For a split second, she wondered whether she was supposed to explain her motives to one of the two people she just might trust with her life. In the end, she had decided against it, believing it would only put the man in danger if Atlas were to try and use his connection with her against herself.

He was a big boy now and she had trained him well. She knew he would be able to go on without her, whether permanently or not. She only regretted having to part with him in such a rough manner; no goodbyes, no 'Why?', no 'I'm sorry'. He wouldn't understand it anyway, would probably call her insane and driven, would claim that she had to let go of this case. That she wasn't perfect and that it wasn't something to be embarrassed of to lose a case like this.

A sad smile graced her face and Lee couldn't help but feel tears prickling in her eyes as she continued her way outside. Of course she wasn't perfect, she knew that more than anybody else. Hated herself more than anybody else for it, too. It only showed how good she was at hiding it.

For this one time, she didn't bother with her rituals as she left the office for what seemed to be the last time and it almost felt like she could hear a page being turned over as the doors closed behind her. This wasn't just the end of a chapter, it was also the beginning of a new one. The start of a new day; her sunrise. But first, she would have to endure the sunset before.

* * *

It was dusty in the spare room Lee had upstairs, the one filled with memories that seemed to belong to some version of her some lifetimes ago. It was almost as though she had stepped through a portal into a time long gone, the dust being the only thing keeping her in the present.

She found an old mirror that had once belonged to her grandmother. Her grandfather had given it to her after her death, finding it had held too many of her memories for him to keep. Lee had only accepted it out of politeness, not wanting to go against the wishes of a man who had just lost the most important person in his life.

Despite never having put it somewhere in the other rooms, she had always found it beautiful, though a little creepy. Death had always been a concept that had confused her, and seeing that mirror always brought back the thoughts she had had a lot around the time of her grandmother's death.

It was old, much older than she herself was, but that only seemed to make it all the more enchanting. The frame of the mirror made it look like it belonged in the Victorian Age instead of the Twenty-First Century.

Wiping a hand over the surface of the mirror itself, Lee was surprised to catch a glimpse of her own eyes under all the dust. Since when had they started to look so old and uneasy?

She cleaned more dust away and found that her gaze jumped to and fro, investigating her own face as though she were looking at a stranger she hadn't met before. Or maybe reuniting with an old friend whom she hadn't seen in years? She looked tired, the bags under her eyes proof of her sleepless nights and the unusual thinness of her face reminding her of how long it had been since she had just sat down to have a proper meal.

Shaking her head, Lee quickly turned away from her own image, ashamed and shy all of a sudden under the scrutinising stare it was giving her.

Then she moved on to a carton box on the ground, kneeled in front of it and opened it with caution, coughing as more dust sprang up at the sudden movement. Once it had settled, she was surprised by the contents of the box, having forgotten all about them.

Her mission to find something that she had stored in this room and needed lost its importance all of a sudden as she reached into the box and picked up a photo album that lay inside. Sitting on the floor with her legs crossed, she opened it, more dust filling the air as she did so.

The first page was filled with photos of a newly-born Lee, lying in the arms of her parents. They laughed happily at the camera as they held her up as though she were their most prized possession. In that very moment, she probably was.

Blaming the dust, Lee wiped at her eyes as her mind replaced those happy faces with the disappointed ones when they realised that she wasn't the daughter that they had wanted. She hadn't wanted to go to university and study her life away only to end up doing the same, boring job for the rest of her life until the day she died, as they had wanted. Had called her a disgrace when she had refused to join them on family visits wherever her grandfather wasn't involved, had shaken their heads at her many rants about why she should not have a boyfriend at the age of sixteen. When the official diagnoses of her obsessive-compulsive disorder were made, they had looked at her as though she had been a failure, now knowing for sure that there was something wrong with her. When their stares and words had continued to haunt her even in her sleep, depression, suicidal thoughts and attempts, anxiety attacks, nihilism and the insomnia she still had today were some of the few... 'side-effects' that only seemed to prove their point.

A gasp left her throat when her body reminded her to breathe, and she closed the album with a loud smack, her skin turning grey from the dust that got kicked up. She dumped it back into its box and only spared a glance towards the teddy bears and other toys that had accompanied her during her childhood. The most important ones of them still slept by her side, after all.

The next box that Lee opened, feeling slightly afraid of what memories this one might hold, contained more books from her childhood. Books that taught one what sound cows made, books filled with fables about dogs befriending horses, books from school... Books she was embarrassed to have but that were too valuable to her to just throw away. Maybe to give to her children later, if she was ever to have any.

She scoffed at that, wondering if there was anybody out there who was crazy enough to want to stay with her long enough to build and maintain a family. Finishing that train of thought with a chuckle, she didn't bother to venture any further and closed that particular box to move onto the next object.

This spare room wasn't really much bigger, the mirror and two rather large boxes filling up most of the space. Next to an antique chair that had belonged to her grandfather and now stood in the corner of this room, there was one more piece of furniture in the room: a vanity.

She didn't know where it came from or to whom it had once belonged. It had come along with the house, had stood in the exact same position it was in right now. She hadn't ever felt the need to move it and had been too lazy to get rid of it, and so she now used it to store various old things in the drawers.

Scanning the first few drawers, it was in the very last one that she found what she had been looking for, what she could probably call her most important possession. The fact that she had never touched the shotgun since receiving it after her grandfather's death and instead kept it stored in this room was proof of that, no matter how weird it seemed. The many times she had gone hunting with the old man, sharing this weapon that still packed quite a punch, had just made it... unwanted to use it after the man she had shared those moments with was gone.

But right now, it was probably the only hope she had left, combined with her usual pistol and the one she had gotten from Dante.

Lee grabbed the gun and the holster that went along with it and carried it back downstairs, where she set about to cleaning it. It wasn't as old as it looked with all the dirt and dust, the tradition of her hunts with her grandfather having only been a recent one. It had been his way to show how proud he had been of how far his granddaughter had managed to come, from that little girl who used to wet her bed because of her nightmares to this strong woman who had taken it upon herself to make the world a better place, no matter how uncharacteristic it had seemed of her.

On her way home, she had purchased the ammo she would need for it, so once she was finished whipping it back into shape, she would be ready for whatever lay ahead of her. It would feel just like the good old days, as though her grandfather were watching her every step from over her shoulder to make sure she did everything right. Except that her grandfather, well, wasn't actually there. But it was the thought that counted.

Outside, the sun was starting to set, and with its final rays of light it reflected off the now-polished shotgun, Lee felt that the next chapter of her life was about to begin.


	15. Clockwork Hearts

**[A/N] Jeralee: **yaay! 8D Your reviews always make me so happy~ And I'll try to keep updating once a week, though it's getting a bit difficult to find time to write in between classes, homework and feeling like shit, ahahaha... I'll continue giving it my best shot anyway!

* * *

"God fucking damn it all," Dante ground out, his fist meeting his desk with way too much strength, more than intended.

His gaze shifted from the pizza box which he had just opened and contained a pizza with - guess what - olives, to the dent he had just made. How was it possible that they kept forgetting that he didn't like olives? How was it even possible that he always ordered his pizza, specifically without olives, yet they always managed to give him pizzas _with_ these fruits that came straight from the pits of the Underworld itself? Normally he would just shrug it off and begin to pick them off and throw them away, but enough was fucking _enough_!

The devil hunter sighed and slumped back into his chair, hitting himself on the cheeks a few times as he did so. He knew perfectly well that this wasn't just about that stupid pizza. Fuck that stupid pizza, he actually didn't even feel like one in the first place! How come he had ordered one when he didn't feel like it?

...because that was what Dante always did.

He let out a groan and placed his elbows on the desk, resting his head in his hands as he evaluated his hopeless situation. He had given himself a little too much free reign, and now he was in a predicament like this.

Why did he have to care so much about her?

Now don't get him wrong. Dante cared as much for humans as the next devil hunter... no, that wasn't right. Dante just cared very much for humans, wanted to help and protect them.

His mother had been the cause for that, the shining light in what seemed to be his otherwise dark past. She had been the only human he had truly loved. Whether as punishment for himself because he couldn't protect her, as retribution, or just to prevent the same from happening to anybody else, he had set out to slay any demons who stood in his path and displayed evil intentions towards humans.

But he had never really _cared_, like he did now. He didn't ponder about anybody's current situation when there didn't seem to be any immediate danger and he most certainly wasn't used to being... _worried_ for the safety of a... friend, if that was what he could call her.

She had seemed accepting enough of him, in her own, curious way. It hadn't taken long for him the realise that, the more she pushed him away, the more she truly wanted him to come back. Typical woman, right?

In the beginning, she had been just another human being. A rather queer one, at that, with all the quirks and whatnot, but to the half-demon still just another human he would protect, as he did with all the other humans. When he had noticed her fear of contact on not just a physical, but on an emotional level as well, and how she had somehow become 'fond' of him, he thought that he would be doing her a favour by trying to pull her out of her shell.

Now he was starting to realise that she had ended up doing _him_ a favour as well. Most of the humans who knew the truth about him hadn't exactly had a normal past, to put it mildly.

There was Lady, who had known her way around even before he had met her. She hadn't even known him as a human in the first place. Patty he had met through a mission, though whether she could be considered normal was questionable; after all, one of her ancestors had been some powerful alchemist who could summon and control demons. Then there was Alice, whom he wasn't even going to think about, and Enzo and Morrison, who had both provided him with odd jobs and therefore didn't count as ordinary either, according to Dante.

But _she_... Despite her intricate behaviour, for all intents and purposes she had been 'just' a normal human being who just had a knack for sticking her nose where it didn't belong, despite his warnings. She had probably not even been able to process whatever this Atlas was when the half-demon had thrown his story at her, yet she had managed to hold her ground, against all his expectations.

'Hold her ground'. Dante laughed at that. Hell, she had practically sought the demon, had brought the battle to the monster itself, and that even though she knew she had no chance of winning. Somehow, Dante thought that it wouldn't take long until she'd learn the ropes of how to kick demon ass, with how much he knew that she hated being saved by him. Still, one couldn't be too careful.

And then she had gone and hit the nail right on the head by telling him the truth about his own feelings, feelings he himself would rather not think of. It had made something inside of him snap and he realised that she hadn't been the only one holding back. The devil hunter had been so busy doing what he did best, that he hadn't had the time to realise the development that had taken place inside of him.

Maybe it had started long ago, in the hospital. Maybe it had started when he saw her ready to throw her life away in a feeble attempt to take down a demon at least thrice her size. Or maybe the way that fighting together, even for the first time, had come to the two of them as easy as breathing did?

"Ah, what does it matter anyway," the man muttered, shaking his head as he did so.

She had seemed to realise her mistake even before she had made it, and had grabbed the first chance she received to get out of here. Dante knew far too well that, if it depended on her, he would probably never get to see her again.

The sound of the telephone ringing interrupted him in his thinking, and even without having picked up yet, he couldn't help but have a premonition about who was on the other side. A smirk appeared on his face as he corrected his previous thought: it seemed as though it didn't depend on her after all.

_You know, you could also help her efforts of staying away from you,_ a voice muttered inside his head, to which Dante simply replied, _Go fuck yourself._

The voice sighed and complained, _I would, but you know very well who will keep appearing._ Dante ignored it and picked up the phone.

"Hello James," Dante greeted as soon as he held the horn against his ear without waiting for the person on the other side to introduce themselves.

"Wha- How?" the boy began, confused, but he quickly gathered his thoughts and continued, "No, never mind. More importantly-"

"What did your boss do now?" the half-demon inquired before James could go off rambling again. He twirled the cord of the phone with his finger, having suddenly forgotten the depressing thoughts that had just dominated his mind, instead concentrating on the task at hand.

"She- Boss- Chief-"

"_James_."

A short silence, before James decided to start from the very beginning. "Boss came in this morning, though not really morning but in the afternoon. She was hours too late, something that she _never_, almost kills me if I do it myself, too, and when she came in, it was obvious that she had been working out. She used to do that every morning until she was hospitalised, but I just guessed that she felt good enough to start it again."

That must have been her way to start preparing for this battle she had forced herself into, or so Dante guessed as he waited for James to continue his story. Muffled noises came from the other side of the connection and the half-demon patiently waited, though not without flicking an olive off his cold pizza and shoving the piece into his mouth.

"And well, anyway, I just happened to be standing there, talking to another officer when she barged in, far too late as I said. And I remembered that the Chief had told me that he had wanted to speak to her and that I should tell her the next time I see her, so I told her just that, and she just gave me that look she always gives me when I have to follow her, so naturally I did just that. Follow her, I mean."

Dante rolled his eyes at how slow the story was progressing. He was starting to grow rather impatient, and he doubted that anything important had happened if her partner was taking his sweet time to explain why he was calling Dante.

As though sensing the irritation rolling off him in waves, James quickly continued. "Ah, yes, sorry. Anyway, so, I foll-we went to see Chief, and even before he could say anything, she declared that she was going to quit. Just like that! Without any explanation!"

"She what?"

"Exactly! That was our reaction too! And well, after that I kind of left without waiting for her, because... Ah, never mind. I left and she didn't stop by, she just left the office. I tried calling her a while after, my anger at her turning into worry, but she wouldn't pick up and well, here I am..." James trailed off. He didn't actually want to ask for the favour, finding it kind of bad of himself that he would even request something like this.

"You want me to 'check up on her'?" Dante asked, knowing fully well what had been meant, fortunately for the boy, who heaved a sigh of relief.

"Yes. That is, if you don't mind..." It wasn't like Dante's live revolved around keeping his boss safe, after all. James could understand if the man had other things to do than babysit her in secret.

"It's fine. I'll see ya around, then," the devil hunter replied and he hung up without waiting for a response.

He didn't wait around to give his mind the opportunity to reprimand himself for being an idiot. Instead, he grabbed his coat and everything else he would need, picked up the pizza box and dumped it, pizza and all, into the bin on his way out.

A few hours later, having searched all over the place, in every corner of the city which the devil hunter could think of, he came to the conclusion that his damsel in distress must be inside her house. He couldn't just come to visit her , at least not so soon after hearing the news, for that might raise suspicion and she would figure out that he was supposed to make sure everything was all right with her. At least there hadn't been any sign of Atlas either, but if what she had told him was true, then that was because he would still be working as her Chief. Tomorrow, then, Dante decided that he would check up on her.

* * *

Lying on her couch, an arm slung over her head, Lee's mind was running amok. Partly in exhaustion, for she still hadn't had any proper sleep, partly in panic, for she had just realised something that had seemed rather trivial to her before.

If Chief were really Atlas, and if he had been planning on using the bustle of the Christmas fair to his advantage to find a quick meal, then why had he decided to send _her_ there, too? Had he thought that she would follow orders, as a taunt? Had he thought his lackey demons would stop her? Or had he just miscalculated, that it had been a mistake on his part?

Whatever the case, she had told herself many times that it no longer mattered, for it was already in the past. Her mind, however, didn't agree with this and forced her to analyse the situation once more, to try and remember the scene before her a bit better, until she found that she had actually fallen asleep.

A knock on her door startled her, her body waking her up with a jolt, and she scolded herself for being afraid. If it actually were Atlas coming to kill and eat her, it would have smashed the door in and used her surprise to its advantage. It wouldn't have knocked at her door, asked her for permission to come in and - oh yeah - if she didn't mind standing still while it ate her.

Still, Lee grabbed the gun that Dante had given her, not wanting to use her shotgun this early in a possible confrontation, as she made her way towards her door. Just before she opened it, she made a note that she had to do something about the fact that she had to actually open the door to see who was standing on the other side.

The detective groaned when she saw the man clad in red stand before her, a grin on his face to greet her with.

"What are you doing here?" she asked him, starting to grow annoyed by his following. Hadn't he said something about her enjoying how he went wherever she went? She wasn't quite feeling it right now.

"Oh, just checking on my fav-"

BANG.

"OW! WHAT THE FUCK!" Dante yelled as he hopped about on his left leg while he tried to cradle the other in his hands.

She watched him react and saw, with inner glee, how his face turned from pained to shocked as realisation dawned on him. "You shot me! You fucking. Shot. Me! Why did you shoot me?"

"Oh, I don't know. Was just testing to see whether you were actually immortal, or really hard to kill, with your demon blood and all," his friend responded with a shrug while she stepped to the side to let the devil hunter in. "Please keep my carpet blood-free."

Dante glared at her as he slowly made his way into her house, putting most of his weight on his un-shot leg. By then it had already stopped bleeding and she would notice the wound to have disappeared only a few minutes later.

"What if my human half had made me as vulnerable as a normal person? Then you would have killed your only capable ally in this battle," Dante retorted and deliberately flung himself onto her couch with such force that the poor thing skidded back a bit.

"I would have finally freed myself of you. Doesn't that count for something?" she shot back at him, closing the door before sitting down in the armchair next to the couch while trying her very best not to feel too annoyed by the change Dante had made to the room.

After sitting in silence for half a minute - Lee with her arms crossed and a frown on her face, Dante looking as though he were sleeping peacefully without a care in the world - she let out a frustrated yell. Getting up, she stomped over to the back of the couch and pushed it with all her might until she managed to get it back where it belonged.

Dante had opened one eye to follow her movements and, with a grin, commented, "Wow, I never thought you'd survive that long."

"Fuck you," Lee growled out as she fell back into her chair. "It's not like I can help it or anything. 'Dear God, it would be very great if you could turn my OCD off. Thank you very much'. Ugh."

A laugh from Dante earned him a glare from her, which silenced him again.

When neither of them said anything again for the next few minutes, Lee shot the man a look that radiated her exasperation. "What are you doing here if you're not going to say anything? Oh wait, I know, James told you to check up on me, didn't he? Well, tell him I am doing fine and that he should go on without me. I can't keep holding his hand for the rest of his life, and the chances of me getting my job back after all this are pretty slim..."

Now it was Dante's turn to frown at her, though he didn't reply at once. He turned his gaze away from her to look up at the ceiling again and her stubbornness forbade her to push him to talk back to her. He had come to visit her, then he was going to begin the conversations, too.

"Actually, I also came because I was worried myself," the devil hunter finally replied, his eyes never leaving the ceiling. Before Lee could even open her mouth to say something, he went on, "How's your wound?"

She let out a sigh and shrugged, realising that repeating her lines of 'I'm fine' and 'Don't worry about me' most likely weren't going to have the effect she was hoping for. So instead, she just answered his question.

"It's fine, it looked worse than it actually was. It doesn't even bother me that much anymore."

Dante nodded in acknowledgement, after which the by-now familiar silence returned. By now she had already gotten over her annoyance, instead picking up a book she had wanted to read through and telling herself to just enjoy the company. If such a thing was possible for her.

A voice inside her head scolded her at having such a thought. It reminded her of Dante's words, telling her that she was lonely and that, in reality, she was craving for his attention. Any attention at all, maybe. Did it really matter whether it was Dante or somebody else? Maybe enough had become enough and now her body was reaching out to anybody who dared to get too close.

Lee shook her head at that, unwilling to believe herself to be so desperate as to have such feelings. It was most likely as Dante had said: both of them were outcasts in their own ways, and that must have been what had attracted her to him in the first place.

In the meanwhile, the half-demon sitting across from her had decided to sneak a peak at her. He was surprised to find her sitting in her chair, staring at the pages in front of her with unseeing eyes, though it was obvious her mind seemed to be at war. He raised an eyebrow at the troubled expression on her face, wondering what could possibly bring her in such a position but not even bothering to answer the question himself. He was sure he wouldn't be able to guess it anyway, with her eccentricity and all.

After a few more minutes of inner debate, though she found no solution, Lee did offer herself a conclusion: whatever the case, she wasn't going to allow herself to get any closer to him. She would need him for this mission, no longer just a case, and afterwards she would part ways with him and try to figure out what she was supposed to do with Atlas gone.

With a curt nod, she concentrated on the text in front of her for the first time since opening the book, only to find that her mind kept zooming away from the words. Letters became blurry in front of her eyes no matter how much she squinted or rubbed them. In the end, she had to acknowledge the fact that she, the great detective with the even better mind, never defeated by trivial matters, could not focus on her job.

In sudden realisation, Lee lifted her head and glared at the white-haired man who looked like he had fallen asleep on her couch. His hands were tucked behind his head, which had fallen just so that he could view him from the front. The peaceful look on his face made her heart do a despicable jump and she almost wanted to stab herself with a knife so that it would never beat again.

His mouth hung open slightly, and her mind at once jumped back to the kiss the two of them had shared. She wondered how he would react if she were to wake him up by straddling him, leaning down and pressing _her_ lips to _his_, for once. She wondered how it would feel to have him press up against her from down below... and then she bit her lip to bring her out of her fantasies. Her face turned red at the disgusting thoughts that had managed to wriggle their way into her head and she hit herself with the book she was still holding.

_He needs to get out of here._

How was she going to explain herself if she were to wake him all of a sudden, her cheeks still blushing as she demanded him to leave?

_No,_ I _have to go._

And so she did. She got up, armed herself with her two guns - leaving the shotgun in its corner for now - and left the house, leaving her spare key on the pillow next to Dante's head.


	16. Don't Look Back

**[A/N]:** this song, Don't Look Back, is performed by Amarante.**  
**

**[A/N] Jeralee: **just go with laughing, I doubt Dante would mind... a lot... And glad you liked Dante's philosophical side. I felt that he could use some fleshing out by now. Also, I hope this kiss is satisfactory~

* * *

In her haste, Lee hadn't devised a plan as to _where_ exactly she planned on going, and so she decided to not think too much as she got into her car. It hadn't seen a lot of use in the past few weeks, and she hoped it wouldn't die on her all of a sudden. Igniting the engine and hearing the familiar noise, she relaxed a little into her seat as she backed out of her parking spot and drove off.

Now Lee knew that turning off her mind while driving wasn't the best thing to do, but she trusted her body enough to at least be able to drive around a bit by itself. She rarely let her instinct do what it wanted, and so she thought that, especially now that she had no idea what she wanted to do or where she wanted to go, maybe it would get her out of her bind for once.

Turns out that her instinct didn't think very favourably of how she kept it locked up most of the time. She probably should have reckoned with that.

When Dante had arrived at her door, it had already been nearing nine o'clock in the evening, so it was now rather dark outside, the streetlights only adding to the eerie atmosphere she found winter always gave her surroundings. With the chance of snow and icy roads at every moment, most people favoured staying inside or going places by foot over using the car, and so the road was practically deserted as Lee made her way through the streets, careful of the fresh layer of snow that had just been dropped.

Christmas was getting far too close for her liking, too, and she couldn't stop thinking about how she had been so stupid as to promise Dante that the two of them would be spending it together. She felt that, now that she had said it, the devil hunter would almost be expecting her to hold up her end of the bargain. She didn't want to imagine the disappointment the poor man would feel when he found out she wasn't planning on doing anything of the sort after all, and then she went on to reprimand herself for even being considerate of his feelings. Had she already forgotten that speech she had given herself of everyone and everything breaking her heart if he or she or it got the chance? No, obviously she hadn't... then why wouldn't she just give up trying to think of excuses as to why she _should_ get close to others? The whole ordeal with James should have been proof enough that people with connections to her always end up being unhappy. She wasn't the only one whose heart kept getting broken; she herself broke others' hearts as well.

_That's right. You don't deserve to be happy,_ a voice inside her head snapped in anger.

Lee bit her lip and ignored it, pretending to concentrate on the road ahead of her instead. It didn't seem to like that because it let out a 'hmpf' and left soon after. Fortunately, too, for her chastising herself over everything she did was quite enough; she didn't need other voices inside her head doing the same as well.

As the car slowly rolled on, the soft hum of the engine was the only sound filling the air - for Lee found buying CDs a waste of money and would rather shoot herself than listen to that horrible shit on the radio - and it almost lulled her to sleep as she tried to keep her mind empty of all thoughts, be they negative or positive. Her body, however, did a good job at doing what it was supposed to do: not get itself, and any bystanders if possible, killed when put on autopilot.

Only about half an hour later did she actually start wondering where the hell she had ended up driving towards, for the darkness ahead of her shocked the detective back into full consciousness. The streetlights had disappeared, and looking back proved that they had been gone for quite a while. Lee always automatically, and uncontrollably, clenched and unclenched her jaw with the passing of every light, but she hadn't realised that she had stopped doing so.

That meant she must have left the city a while back, but as she looked around for any clues as to where she might be, she couldn't discern exactly which exit she had taken, and thus had no idea where she had ended up.

Lee frowned and then proceeded to look around for a place to turn around so that she could just take the same road back. Then she realised that she was all on her own out here, so nobody would care if she turned on the middle of the road, but just as she was about to make a u-turn, what she would call her instincts 'told' her, as it were, to keep on driving.

Though her instinct had most likely been planning its revenge against her, it had probably saved her life by preventing her from turning back.

And so, utterly confused and lost, Lee drove on at an even slower pace than before, squinting her eyes to make sure she didn't happen to lose the road and enter the woods, or some nonsense like that. As if being lost like this wasn't bad enough, losing her vehicle by driving into a tree was the absolute last thing she needed.

It didn't take her much longer to notice that she had somehow ended up in the industrial periphery, situated a ways from the city and near the ocean, from where the place got most of its shipments by boat. Lee had no idea what kind of work was performed here, hadn't ever been here before, either. She had no clue why she was here, and she hadn't the foggiest where she was going either, what with not being able to see anything for the lack of proper lights in the vicinity.

Driving between piles and stacks of crates and containers, eventually the silence became too much even for her, and so her hand, trembling under the sudden pressure of the stifling atmosphere, reached out and wandered across the dashboard in search of the radio's controls.

Yes, that's right. She had used that radio so little that she couldn't situate its on-and-off button in the dark.

Giving up half way through her search, and not daring to tear her eyes off the path ahead of her, she instead moved her hand to the steering wheel, deciding that maybe two hands having a firm grasp on it seemed the safest option right now. Not that that extra hand would help her a lot in the coming events.

The start of said events were signalled when, all of a sudden, a cold rush ran over her skin, leaving goose bumps in its wake as it went from the tip of her toes to the top of her head.

As if that hadn't already been enough of a signal, the hairs on the back of her neck stood up and all Lee could utter was, "Fuck."

That's what she got for leaving the safety of Dante's companionship, no matter the effects of his presence had on her. Would she rather be dead, or would she rather feel flustered and embarrassed? No? Exactly.

She pushed the thought to the back of her mind and tried to concentrate on the situation at hand. She was driving through a narrow corridor of containers - why was it that all her encounters were in places such as these? - and the light of her vehicle's front lamps was barely enough to discern the splits in the 'road', never mind what was hiding around the corners.

What to do? What to do?

What _could_ she do? She might have had some specially-powered gun made by Dante, but she had been stupid enough to leave her shotgun behind.

But then again, what good would her shotgun have been, stuck in her car, unable to manoeuvre herself properly? It would have given her nothing more than false confidence.

Having been too busy with her thoughts once again - the downside of her genius, if there ever was one - it came as a surprise to her when her surroundings disappeared all of a sudden and she entered a large clearing, the piles of containers having been left behind her.

"No!" she yelled, mad at both the situation and at herself for letting her guard down like that.

She hadn't even been able to take any measurements, such as reversing back into the narrow pathway between the crates, or grabbing her guns and leaving her vehicle to run for cover, when the world around her started to shake violently.

At once, Lee recognised the noise as Atlas's feet pounding against the ground beneath it and she knew that it had been lying in wait, hoping for just a moment like this. Why it had even known she would be here at this moment was beyond her, but she didn't exactly have enough time to ponder the answer to this question as she saw the glint of its huge body rushing towards her from her right side.

Rolling down the window and grabbing Dante's gun at the same time, she aimed and shot at the monster, hoping to set it off its course, or to just delay it until her brain felt like working again.

It seemed that she had no such luck, however, as Atlas continued its rush towards her, even though the liquid gleaming in its face made it evident that she _had_ hit it a few times. The fact that she had managed to make the demon bleed, thanks to this gun Dante had given her, gave her a feeling of victory, but she rolled up her window back up anyway, just in case that something like that might help. Or maybe it was just the need for closure forcing her to do so.

That feeling of victory wasn't very long-lived, however, as only moments later it crashed its bleeding head against the side of her car.

Only when she saw the door to the passenger's side bend in towards her did she start to feel afraid, dread filling her as she chanced a glance in the opposite direction and found that the ocean was far closer than she had liked. She tried to calm herself down by telling herself that the distance between herself and the end of what she now noticed to be a dock was too large to ever reach it like this.

Apparently even her acquaintance with Dante hadn't prepared her for the actual strength of a demon. Atlas retreated in haste, only to turn around again once it deemed that it had put enough room between her car and itself to pick up speed and finish what it had started.

This time, when its head rammed her car, it didn't just make a dent. Instead, it sent her, one tonne-weighing vehicle and all, practically flying through the air. Because of the speed of the demon, her car didn't just smash into the ground afterwards. Instead, it rolled over a few more times, violently at first, until it slowed down into a maybe-maybe not toppling over onto the other side.

When the detective's car finally stopped moving, she was hanging upside down, trying her best not to throw up from both the sharp pain in her head, having hit something during the rolling, and the rolling itself.

So there she hung, upside down in her car. She tried her best to stay as still as possible, which wasn't a difficult task seeing as she was still swimming in and out of consciousness. She didn't know where she was right now, but her gut told her that it couldn't be anywhere good, like far, far away from the sea. The creaking sound her car was making and the feeling of it slowly tipping over weren't helping the situation at all and by the time she knew for a fact that she was lying on the edge of the dock, she was already plummeting towards the waves of the ocean beneath her.

Suddenly very alive and awake again, a scream left Lee's throat but it got cut off by a splash as her car landed in the sea, her head banging against the steering wheel as she hit the waves, water seeping into the vehicle through cracks she didn't even knew were there. In the first few seconds after, she was out cold; the only thing filling her vision a blinding whiteness that reminded her of a certain someone's hair.

"Dante," she mumbled and her heart did that damned jiggle again, but it stopped at once when she felt cold water encasing parts of her legs and she remembered what was going on.

The first thing she did was unbuckle her seatbelt, her mind uncannily blank as she tried to do so. There were no 'why's or 'how's; there was only the will to survive. That only got worse when the bloody thing seemed to be jammed and all the tugging of her heavy limbs wasn't helping one bit.

As the water rose to her hips, so did her panic. She let out another cry of despair and looked around frantically, trying to find something through the heavy throbbing of her head and the terror, _anything_ that could help her. On the seat next to you, she noticed her antidepressants, which she never seemed to touch these days, that had somehow fallen out of the glove compartment. That said something about how little she usually touched those bastards.

Her OCD chose the best time to kick in all of a sudden and feeling the urge to pop a pill, despite the voice screaming inside her head that she didn't have time for this, she did just that. Fortunately, her OCD did seem to realise that it wasn't time to be picky about which tablet felt 'right'. Afterwards, she sat still for a few moments, willing the medication to kick in faster with the help of the adrenaline coursing through her veins.

When it did, however, everything seemed much clearer and her panic ebbed away, though the water continued its way over her stomach. Bending down and lifting her knee at the same time, she pulled her knife out of her boot. How could she, yet again, have forgotten that she had had this with her?

With a single swipe, she unfolded it and within mere seconds she had cut herself free from the seatbelt. Everything was starting to become woozy once more as she tried to push the door open, but she remembered something about the pressure equalising and it being inhuman to open a door when the car was still half-empty.

_Dante._

Lee's heart started to throb again, this time together with her head, almost as if it were actually feeling pain at the thought of never seeing the annoying bastard again. Where was he when she needed him most, anyway? Why was she even begging for his help, anyway? What about becoming strong enough to take care of herself? Was she to rely on the man for the rest of her life?

After several more futile attempts to kick the door open, she realised she should try and smash the window open instead. By now, moving around was almost impossible because of the water that had risen to her shoulders. Her head, however, was still thinking clearly, even with the headache and... What was that?

Blood slowly dripped down her forehead from hitting the steering wheel. While softly cussing herself out for not having braced herself for the impact, she somehow managed to find her guns. Fearing that water had gotten into the barrel, she chose smashing its butt against the window instead of shooting it.

Even this was an almost impossible task, seeing as how the water was slowing her movements down. But with every bit of extra water that seeped into the car, her panic returned with a vengeance and so did the strength in her arms. A crack appeared and with hope she continued slamming at it, until a hole finally appeared and it became easier to break a hole big enough for her to squeeze through.

Taking a deep breath, she wriggled herself out of the window, receiving wounds from the jagged ends here and there but getting out unharmed for the most part. And just as she was about to permanently free herself from the sinking car, her foot caught onto something and wouldn't let go.

_Fuck._

She didn't say it out loud, afraid to lose precious air, and instead started tugging with all her might. It was the seatbelt that hadn't retracted properly, twisting around her leg as if it were alive and didn't want her to leave.

The feeling of her chest and throat tightening signalled that she didn't have much time left, and black spots were starting to swim around in front of her. She began to frantically search around for her knife, not quite sure where she had put it once she had used it. By the time she had found it, having stuck it in the pocket of her trousers, and had managed to free herself, she was already on autopilot, her body forcing her to open her mouth and inhale.

_I'm going to die._

There wasn't anything else Lee could think of as she hung there, coughing at the water in her lungs.

A current began to pull at her. To the left, then back to the right. As if the ocean was trying to lull her to sleep for the last time, trying to make her death as comfortable as possible.

It would have worked, were it not for that flash of white that reappeared, together with the feeling as if someone were hitting her head with a sledgehammer.

The flash was followed by a sudden warmth around her arms, and suddenly the current had gotten much stronger. Before she knew what had happened, a pang of air hit her in the face and she inhaled like an asthma-patient after having an attack, but then with lots of spluttering.

She even threw up a few times - mainly water - before she came back to her senses. At least, as much as that was possible with having hit her head _twice_ and having almost drowned mere moments ago.

"D-Dante?" she whispered hoarsely, her trembling fingers winding their way in his wet hair as she stared into his blue eyes.

His lips were twisted in a small smirk, but it was rather obvious that it was fake. His gaze left hers and moved up a bit, to the blood that was giving her face a beautiful war-painted look and he finally showed her the grimace that had been hiding behind his grin.

"The fuck... you doing here?" Lee managed between gasps, but the tears leaking from her eyes and mingling with the seawater on her cheek made it rather obvious that she wasn't being serious.

Dante gave her a surprised look at the sight of her crying, but instead of saying something back to her, he began to pull her along with him, back to land.

Lee herself looked back at him, just as surprised at her own tears, so many emotions and thoughts rushing through her at the same time. As Dante continued to drag her along with him, she clung to his jacket, buried her face in the crook of his neck and let herself go for once, bawling out loud to free herself from this turmoil inside of her.

Her first thought during the whole ordeal had been that of Dante, hoping he would come and save her. All this time, she had been trying to run away from him, to spare herself of yet another heartbreak, but it had all been nothing more than a lie to herself. She had already gotten far too close to the half-demon to treat him as just a colleague, to just forget about him when this was over. It would end in a heartbreak either way, anyway. Or would it?

These tears - tears of _relief_ - were enough proof for all this. Though she wasn't exactly wanting or trying to kill herself, her suicidal tendencies hadn't truly left her as she had gotten older. She hadn't even been afraid of dying, had rather thought that she would embrace it instead, if her time were to come. Yet here she was, glad to still be alive, though she didn't quite understand how it could have been possible for Dante to find her. She had truly thought she was going to die, and had been frightened.

She hadn't wanted to die.

She had wanted to stay around for just a bit longer. To shoot this man in his other leg, perhaps. Or maybe to experience the many things she had never before been interested in with him? Perhaps he wanted the same with her?

It occurred to her all of a sudden that he hadn't called her by one of his perverted nicknames in quite a while.

A small smile appeared between her tears, and for the first time she allowed her heart to do its retarded jumping thing as she looked up at Dante.

At the sudden stop of her crying, the devil hunter looked down at her, his icy blue eyes meeting hers. He blinked a few times, the questions in his mind obvious to guess, at which she laughed. He raised an eyebrow, now clearly wondering if that hit to her head had gotten to her... well, head.

Then Lee, without thinking, pushed herself up with the help of Dante's shoulders and pressed her lips to his. Without waiting for his consent, she slipped her tongue into his mouth, caressed his own tongue to stimulate it into moving along with hers.

Instead, Dante froze up while he confirmed that hitting her head had indeed been a bit too much for her. In an attempt to save her own dignity from herself, he tried to pull her away, but she reacted to this by pressing harder against his mouth. His mouth, by then having understand what was going on, turned into a grin before he broke the one-sided kiss by turning his head to the side.

"You know, I absolutely _love_ that you're so eager all of a sudden, but maybe you should wait until we've got you some place safe and dry, and not, you know, in the middle of the sea," he murmured before pressing a kiss to the top of the detective's head.

Her cheeks flushed at her sudden eagerness and so she hid her face back in the crook of his neck.

Though her car hadn't fallen that far into the ocean, the swim back to land felt like it took ages, and in the meantime she kept swimming in and out of consciousness. She wanted to fall asleep, but at the same time she was suddenly afraid that something might go wrong if she did and that she might die anyway.

Still, the sound of the waves around her and Dante's warmth that encased and protected her from the coldness of the water managed to lull her to a peaceful sleep anyway, despite his protests. She only hoped there'd be a tomorrow to look him in the eye again and tell him of her epiphany.

She was willing to try.


End file.
